Radnor police caution about anonymous chat site

Radnor police are cautioning residents about a website that allows users to chat anonymously with strangers after the parents of a 12-year-old reported that someone on the site coaxed the child into sending nude pictures.

The site, Omegle, randomly pairs users in one-on-one chat sessions where they communicate using the handles "You" and "Stranger." The site was created by 18-year-old Leif K-Brooks of Brattleboro, Vt., in 2008 and helped usher in the age of the anonymous face-to-face chat on the Web, according to Wikipedia.

"What's the first thing we tell our children when they are old enough to leave the house? Don't talk to strangers. Omegle encourages you to talk to strangers," Police Superintendent William Colarulo said at a news conference Monday.

Colarulo said police were trying to identify the person who chatted with the 12-year-old.

"We're not sure where it's based out of. My concern is there are other sites just like this one," he said, citing Chatroulette.

Police said they hoped to get the word out to parents and schools about the danger of children going on Omegle and meeting a predator.

"It's frighteningly simple for these predators to use this site. What's to stop them from meeting a child at a predetermined site?" he said.

Detective Thomas Schreiber demonstrated just how quick and easy it was to meet people by logging on and pretending to be a 15-year-old girl. Within seconds he was conversing with several older men who were trolling for younger girls and asked the user's ASL, meaning age, sex and location.

When he switched to video - without showing who he was - several men who responded were masturbating.

"All you have to do is say hello," Colarulo said. "The majority of people on this site are men looking to prey on children." While Omegle contains a disclaimer that asks that no one under 18 may use the site without their parents' permission, it is easy to lie about your age by clicking a button that says the user is 18, he said.

Since it was launched, the site has morphed from a platform for bored 20-somethings to a place where it's hard not to get a peek at someone's private parts or worry about pedophiles looking for bait, according to reports about Omegle.

K-Brooks acknowledged in an interview for about.com that Omegle is not for young children. He said he was working with law enforcement agencies to protect Omegle's users.

In 2012, a 29-year-old California school teacher was charged with child pornography after he swapped nude photos with a 13-year-old New Jersey girl he met on Omegle, according to newspaper reports.