Omegle Revoked After 14 years

By Sabha Hossan, 2025

Published 12/12/2023

The popular video chat site, Omegle, which was first introduced in March 2009, was shut down earlier this year on November 8th. It was first created to match and connect strangers from around the world. Users would put in their interests and those who have the same interests would be matched on the site, and the two users matched were able to chat privately via text or video call. However, while originally created for this positive reason, there were many dangers that occurred which led to the site being shut down.

There were many issues and controvesy with the site. Omegle was an unsafe site to be on because there were many online predators. Young children and teens were exposed to inappropriate or explicit content. In 2021, a young woman sued Omegle, accusing the site of matching her with an older man who sexually exploited her when she was only 11 years old and the exploiting continued for many years after, which was the main cause for the site to shut down (npr.org). However, that wasn’t the only case of users being exploited or abused. There is an extension to Google Chrome, and that will show the IP address of users from Omegle video. This is dangerous because the displayed IP reveals the location of the user and also the internet provider of the user. With this personal information being revealed, predators on the site have more of a chance to track other users which puts users in harm.

The cases of child grooming on the site have increased dramatically since the site was first introduced, especially with the rise of popularity during the COVID pandemic and as a result of TikTok users videoing their experience on the site. For instance, in 2022, there were over 600,000 reports of child exploitation on Omegle to the nonprofit National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline. 

It’s evident that Omegle has a long, problematic history of sexual abuse issues. In August 2023, a man was sentenced to 16 years in prison after admitting to chatting with approximately 1,000 minors on Omegle and recording many of them undressing (Washington Post). There have been many lawsuits filed by abuse victims and in a settlement earlier this year with A.M. stems from a $22 million lawsuit which claims the man who abused her saved thousands of sexually exploitative images of young children (C.A. Goldberg PLLC). In 2022, a reporter from CBC found that most users she matched to chat with appeared to be men who were either naked or off-camera (CBA News). As a result, it was clear that this site had become a dangerous place to be on the internet and had to be shut down.