(NSFW?) At what age are you responsible for what you are exposed to online?

A while back i heard of a site called omegle, it was actually here on fluther that it was mentioned. its basically a site that lets you chat 1 on 1 to a random stranger, you do not need to register or log in, you simply press “start a chat”.

recently, omegle have added a video chat feature. allowing you to talk to a random strange 1 on 1 and face to face, as soon as you click “start a chat” you are sent in to a text chat room where both persons cameras are activated and sound is optional. i decided i would try it out and see who i met.

after about 40 minutes to an hours time in to my exploration of the new feature, and having spoken to several people i had been exposed to:

- a dozen or more clothed horny guys who left as soon as they saw i was a guy also

- another dozen or so fully naked guys who either left or asked me if i was gay

- one naked pre-op transexual who was fully erect and masturbating.

- two partially clothes horny ’‘girls’’ who where actually guys using manycam to fake being women

- one actual partially clothed horny girl who was looking for a guy with nice arms

- one fully naked girl who wanted cam2cam cybersex

- about five or six ‘normal’ guys who where just there to chat

- two ‘normal’ girls who where just there to chat

- about five or six things that just made me say WTF!?, such as japanese spandex guy in crocodile hat dancing to aqua’s dr jones, winking cartoon teddy bear animation, and other random stuff.

the disturbing part is these are not the only people i found, while on the site i also came across a couple of young 14–15 year old girls at some kind of sleep over, a young boy who could have been no older than 10 years old, and a couple groups of other children aged between 12 and 16.

so my question and topic for debate here is who is responsible here? obviously with 4000 to 10000 people on the site at any given time its only a matter of time until a child is exposed to the masturbations of a old guy or transvestite.

how delicate are children when it comes to this kind of thing? i personally was no older than 9 years old when me and my friends started stealing porno magazines from their older brothers, and i like to think i turned out ok.

is the site being negligent here in having no age or adult content warnings?

is it the parents who should be doing a better job of what their kids are up to? and can you realistically expect them to enforce what their kids do online when even the most basic of gadgets seem to have internet capability

or should people of all ages know by now what to expect when they go online?