Imagine you’re a child signing on to a random chat generator and you get paired with a celebrity like Millie Bobby Brown(nouvelle fenêtre). If the situation sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is: there’s a growing trend to use AI filters to fool kids into thinking they’re talking to their favorite celebrities.
Welcome to Omegle and its many alternatives. Omegle was a popular chat platform that randomly and anonymously paired strangers around the world through text or video. For over 14 years, it attracted millions of young people with a tagline that flew in the face of every childhood safety rule: “Talk to strangers.” The problem was that anyone could join, including kids pretending to be older — or adults pretending to be teens.
In November 2023, Omegle officially shut down(nouvelle fenêtre) after mounting public backlash and its connection to over 500 criminal investigations involving child predators. However, countless Omegle copycat platforms still exist, often with the same lack of moderation, weak privacy protections, and high risk of abuse.
If your child is curious, bored, or seeking connection online, they may already know about these Omegle alternatives. Here are the risks involved with such platforms and what you can do to keep your child safe online(nouvelle fenêtre).
What is Omegle and how does it work?
Omegle was a free, anonymous chat website that connected users with random strangers for real-time conversations via text or video. No account or age verification was required — anyone could access the site, click a button, and instantly be matched with someone else.
Omegle and its clones generally use a peer-to-peer (P2P) connection for video chats, meaning they share your data (including video and audio streams and potentially your IP address) directly with the person you’re talking to.
Omegle offered several chat options:
- Text mode for standard one-on-one conversations
- Spy (question) text mode, where one person asked a question and two strangers debated or answered it
- Video mode for one-on-one video chats, where participants could see and hear each other
- Unmoderated video mode for adults over 18, which carried a warning but had no real safeguards
- College student mode for users with college email addresses
- Interest-based mode for pairing two strangers with similar interests
At its peak in January 2023, Omegle attracted 70 million monthly visitors(nouvelle fenêtre), with 38% of users(nouvelle fenêtre) aged 18–24. Its simplicity and anonymity made it especially appealing to teens — and predators.
What risks does your child face on apps like Omegle?
Omegle might be gone, but many similar platforms still exist, often exposing their users to the same dangers.
Lack of meaningful moderation and safety controls
Omegle had community guidelines(nouvelle fenêtre) meant to discourage harmful behavior, including harassment, sexually explicit content, threats, impersonation, and the unauthorized sharing of personal information. But enforcement was practically nonexistent.
While you could report abuse to Omegle, it banned offenders based on their IP address, making it easy to bypass them. Unfortunately, many Omegle alternatives still operate using the same ineffective procedures. For example, TinyChat and CamSurf don’t require registration, so anyone can join.
While some of these websites claim to use AI or human moderation, there’s often little transparency around what that actually means or whether it’s effective — especially on platforms that prioritize fast, anonymous access over user safety.
Exposure to inappropriate content and online predators
Due to poor moderation and nonexistent age verification, Omegle became a hotspot for nudity, sexually explicit behavior, and graphic conversations, often within seconds of joining a chat. Many kids were exposed to adult content and pressured(nouvelle fenêtre) to perform inappropriate acts before they even knew what was happening.
Many disturbing cases involving Omegle have surfaced, including users sharing confessions(nouvelle fenêtre) after sexting with underage teens, sexual abuse(nouvelle fenêtre), and a man convicted of sextorting(nouvelle fenêtre) over 100 children across platforms like Omegle, TikTok(nouvelle fenêtre), and Snapchat(nouvelle fenêtre).
Involuntary sharing and recordings
Everything kids share on platforms like Omegle — whether its’s text, photos, or videos — can be secretly recorded or screenshotted without their knowledge. These recordings may later become tools for threats, humiliation, extortion, or AI-generated deepfakes(nouvelle fenêtre) — realistic photos or videos that are manipulated to make it appear the child said or did something they never did. The emotional damage can be irreversible(nouvelle fenêtre).
Manipulation and scams
On anonymous chat platforms with little to no supervision, like Omegle, it’s easy for bad actors to pose as someone they’re not. Some may take their time, building trust through casual conversation before asking for access to private photos, files, or personal information — a classic form of social engineering(nouvelle fenêtre) that can quickly lead to doxing or blackmail.
Scammers may also share links that lead to malware or phishing websites(nouvelle fenêtre) designed to steal credentials or install spyware. It only takes a simple, casual message like “Can you vote for me in this contest?” to trick someone into clicking.
As we mentioned in the intro, people have recently started using AI-generated deepfakes to impersonate celebrities — often to gain views(nouvelle fenêtre). In the wrong hands, this technology(nouvelle fenêtre) can exploit a child’s trust by mimicking a public figure they admire, making it easier to pressure them into doing or sharing things they normally wouldn’t.
Data collection and privacy risks
Even if your child doesn’t share anything personal in a chat, just using an app like Omegle can expose them to privacy risks. These platforms often collect IP addresses, device details, and chat logs — and with so many different copycats out there, it’s difficult to tell how trustworthy any platform’s privacy policies really are.
For example, OmeTV’s privacy policy(nouvelle fenêtre) says that the platform collects various data, including:
- IP addresses, shared with service providers and other users in video chats. Although an IP address reveals only a general location, it can be correlated with parts of a conversation to help pinpoint where your child lives or build a profile of who they are
- Profile data, including your child’s name, age, and information from their connected social profiles
- Video frame snapshots from cameras during bans or complaints
In the case of Omegle, it allowed users to save chats, generating a unique link for each one. Anything your child typed in what felt like a private conversation could be permanently stored and shared online by the other person. However, a security flaw(nouvelle fenêtre) allowed anyone to access the chat links of other Omegle users.
What can parents do to protect their kids online?
Here’s what you can do to help your child stay safer on the internet(nouvelle fenêtre):
Talk about online risks and keep the conversation open
If your child is old enough to go online, they’re old enough to understand the risks. That’s why it’s important to have regular, honest conversations, ideally before any issues arise. Help them understand:
- The risks of talking to strangers, such as grooming and exposure to explicit content.
- Why they should never share personal information, like their real name, school, where they live, or photos.
- How photos or videos of them can be misused, including for AI training(nouvelle fenêtre), deepfakes, and extortion.
- That people online can easily lie about who they are, impersonate celebrities, and may try to build trust through flattery or fake identities to manipulate them.
- That nothing online is ever truly private — even disappearing messages or private chats can be made public.
Most importantly, let your child know that if a stranger asks for something personal or makes them uncomfortable, it’s always okay to leave the conversation — no explanation needed — and come talk to you.
Set clear rules and stay involved
To help your child form healthy boundaries around video chat platforms like Omegle, set expectations together about what’s okay to do online, what’s off-limits, and when to ask for help. Go through the app or website with them and explore how to report, block, or mute users when something feels off.
Set ground rules about which apps they’re allowed to use, when, and for how long. You might also consider using parental control tools that can send alerts about suspicious or unsafe activity, explaining they are there to keep them safe, not invade their privacy.
Teach kids how to spot red flags
Here are some common warning signs that could signal grooming, scams, or social engineering attempts:
- Strangers asking to move the conversation to another app
- Requests for photos, especially “just for fun” or “just between us”
- Messages that suddenly turn flirtatious or overly personal
- Users who hide their face on video or use fake-looking profiles
- Pressure to keep the conversation secret
- Being asked to click on links or download files
- Sudden threats or guilt-tripping if the child doesn’t respond
Set up a VPN for your family
Even if your child doesn’t share personal details, platforms like Omegle may expose the IP addresses of users, which can reveal their approximate location and other device information.
A VPN (virtual private network) helps hide your IP address and encrypt your internet traffic. With a VPN enabled, strangers, websites, and apps will have a harder time tracking your child’s location and gathering data about them.
Proton VPN allows you to protect up to 10 devices under one account and works on all major platforms, including Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Linux. You can also set it up on your home router, so every device connected to your WiFi is automatically protected.
Want more tips for raising privacy-smart kids? Explore our guide for families.(nouvelle fenêtre)
Shady platforms like Omegle aren’t going away anytime soon. But with the right tools, honest conversations, and clear boundaries, you can help your child stay safe, confident, and in control of their digital life. At Proton, we believe privacy should be the default — especially for kids. That’s why we build tools that protect your data without asking you to trade it away.
