Chatroulette

This video, which features augmented reality tricks and the Jonas Brothers at the end, was captured in Chatroulette.

Back in 1996, I worked a brief stint as a vulgarity censor at America Online (a perfect job for a Brooklyn Italian). The story, "Terms of Service: Sweaty Scenes from the Life of an AOL Censor," ended up on the cover of the Village Voice.

Then, as now, I was enchanted by the Internet and all the possibilities it creates for connection, but I was also curious about how the split between childhood and adulthood would be handled in a way that would let adults be adults (which means different things to different people) while giving kids have some freedom to explore without being exposed to behaviors that most adults will never witness.

Congratulations, Chatroulette--you've knocked the Latex Nun in Gas Mask forums (from my AOL days) out of first place for most vivid internet memory.

For those who haven't tried it or heard about it, here's how it works: Once you hit play on Chatroulette, a video comes up with a stranger from someplace else in the world. You can video chat with that person in voice and in text. When you get tired of the exchange, you move on, unless you bore or disgust the other participant first.

Of course there's only anonymity in Chatroulette if nobody recognizes you, and then it's only a fleeting image if nobody is screen capturing. After a while, every time I saw one or two males on screen, I instantly forwarded to the next chat to avoid witnessing a scene that was all too often repeated. I didn't realize until after the fact that I had captured two of the Jonas Brothers. While the footage is fleeting, they're there, in the last frame of the video--but there's no going back in Chatroulette.

My verdict is that Chatroulette would be fabulous if participants weren't anonymous, but the anonymity, and the lack of control over who shows up on the screen, create a golden opportunity for malcontents to be disruptive and for minors to witness completely inappropriate material.

But I did get to meet a nice Chinese family...