New social media site goes viral

TORONTO – Move over Facebook. Make some room, Twitter. Chatroulette, could be the next big Internet social phenomenon to go viral.

The website, which reportedly boasts up to 20,000 users at any one time, allows people from around the world to log on anonymously and be connected to other strangers via webcam chat.

Launched in November, Chatroulette was the brainchild of 17-year-old Russian student Andrey Ternovskiy as a way for him and his friends to video chat with strangers online.

But in the past few weeks, the website has garnered a lot of mainstream media attention when it was reported on CNN and the New York Times, and has since attracted the good, the bad and the very ugly on the Internet, many of whom now use it as a venue for nudity and amateur pornography.

"It’s a bit of a throwback," said Greg Elmer, the director of Infoscape Lab at Ryerson University on Monday. "We seem to be so immersed in our social networks, responding and commenting on our friends and family members and keeping people updated, that this kind of anonymous platform seems kind of dated in a sense."

He hasn’t seen a website like this for at least five years, back when text-based chat rooms were still popular.

The way Chatroulette was simply designed, with minimal text and no graphics except for the screenshots of the users, is also one of the reasons for its appeal.

Once users go on the website, they are prompted to hit the "Play" button and will immediately be linked in real time to a stranger – who can be a teacher from Italy, a group of students from Bulgaria, or a musician from the U.S. If their chatting partner doesn’t grasp their interest, users can move on by clicking the "Next" button.

"It’s like rolling the dice," said Elmer, whose centre researches social media trends. "There’s no control over who you end up with, it could be a grandmother, a blank screen, a friendly face, or even a body part. The ‘Next’ button is an uncontrollable device that you don’t see any more on the Internet, that’s why it has viral appeal."

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, which has launched a number of high-profile investigations into social media websites like Facebook and Google Buzz in the last few months, said it was aware of Chatroulette but has not received any public complaints about the chat website.

However, social media expert Sydney Eve Matrix said Chatroulette’s change into a stage for voyeurism and exhibitionism is predictable in the online world.

"It’s the NSFW (not safe for work) website at the moment," said Matrix, also a media and marketing professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. "When you put things like anonymity, exhibitions and voyeurism together, it will go toward something pornographic and show the underside of our culture."

She said the website’s growing popularity is also based on people’s innate curiosity.

"This website has fabulous potential because it opens people up to having these random encounters," said Matrix. "It’s addictive because it feeds on our natural curiosity of human networks. This is the best example of misfit media."

The appeal is also due to the fact that Chatroulette is completely uncensored and unpoliced, unlike other video websites like YouTube and 12 Seconds TV or networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

That may also be its downfall, she added.

"It’s the devolution of a website," said Matrix. "Many people are predicting that it will end prematurely in lawsuits because it’s no holds barred and we can’t keep kids away from it. It’s predicted to go down in flames."