Can You Be Charged Over Sexual Conduct on Chatroulette.com

[GGrant]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: California

Hello, and thank you ahead of time for your help.

Chatroulette.com is a webcam chat site (supposedly anonymous) where you are matched with random people. If you dont like what you see or read you can simply press the next button, and both you and the other person will be matched with someone else randomly. On the front of the site there are two rules, be 16 and wear clothes, and then there is also the terms of service: http://chatroulette.com/terms.php (stating you have to be 18). However, if you visit the site, half of it is middle aged men showing penis's, and the rest drunks showing guns, or even some women exposing themselves. Rarely you do get normal people.

Theoretically in California if one went on chatroulette.com just trying to have some funny chat sessions, and saw mostly penis's and guns, then decided to expirement themselves, and, after a few clicks, they get a middle aged woman pleasuring herself with a sign that said "play with me". Noticing a new TOS on the site (stating you had to be 18 or older: http://chatroulette.com/terms.php) and she was definitly over 18, and with all the penis's, one decides they could experiment, whats the harm?

Anyways after a few moments of "cybersex" they noticed they were being "nexted" and other people where looking at them with penis in hand (didnt have face exposed). Then, out of shame, and not wanting to expose themselves inappropriatly, quickly spammed next and closed the laptop.

A few moments later after composing themselves, They decide to go back on, and notice they are banned. One did some research and found out they were recording IP addresses, and storing information for law enforcement. (Media hype?)

Reading several articles, have become real scared. Have they violated any laws? Did they expose themsleves to anyone underage even though you have to be 18 to be on the site? Can and will the FBI charge them with anything? Is this person working themselves into a fury?

In know way would this person have wanted any underage exposed, and being named a pedofile or sex offender would be the end of their life. Never would this person ever duplicate an action like this again! This person is paranoid now, probably making this post 15 miles from their home at a random free internet spot.

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated!

[LawResearcherMissy]

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated!

As a rule of thumb, if you're engaging in an activity that makes you paranoid that you're going to get in trouble for it, your best course of action is stop engaging in that activity.

In other words, stay off ChatRoulette.

[GGrant]

That would be a first and a last for anything of the sort on Chatroulette, or any other site for that matter. And while they appreciate the advice(thank you), they are more looking for an answer as to can and will they likely be charged with anything?

[jk]

they might be able to be charged with something depending on all of the circumstances. In the situation you have explained, probably not BUT nothing is certain in the world of the internet and sex crimes.


you need to consider that any site you visit records your IP address (including this one). It is rare that a site does not at least have the ability to record your IP address. Chatroulette records all IP contacts. Their TOS states clearly no penis handling on camera or you are subject to banning. Most likely you were reported by the viewers that did not want to be exposed to your stunt and Chatroulette banned you.

Unless the party that you exposed yourself to were children, I suspect that is where it will end.

[UnkoolDad]

Any update on this GGrant - I am in a similar situation and wonder if there were any consequences?

[Jourz]

I highly doubt they'll be in any trouble. The whole "we store IP for law enforcement" were only for media buzz and to make people think of chatroulette as a clean site, because the whole reputation of it was really bad. The way it works is that moderators would see a screenshot of their cam, see that they were naked, and ban them from the site. Nothing more. Thats how chatroulette and the other site like it works.

[jk]

I highly doubt they'll be in any trouble. The whole "we store IP for law enforcement" were only for media buzz and to make people think of chatroulette as a clean site, because the whole reputation of it was really bad. The way it works is that moderators would see a screenshot of their cam, see that they were naked, and ban them from the site. Nothing more. Thats how chatroulette and the other site like it works.

If you think they do not have the ability to store IP addresses, you are sadly mistaken. In fact, it is most likely it is stored. Whether the site utilizes it or not is another thing but I am quite confident if a court order showed up to divulge such information, they can provide it.

[KeyWestDan]

What you described is what the site is designed for. Nobody is going to take any legal action. Are you like mentally 12 years old or something? Your concerns are totally absurd. This thread is a waste of effort.