• Popular chat platform Omegle is shutting down after 14 years of being online.
• Its founder says that the site is shuttering due to concerns that running the site and fighting against ‘evildoers’ who abuse the platform is affecting his mental and physical health.
• Omegle has been linked to at least 50 cases against paedophiles across the US, UK and Australia.

After 14 years online, popular video chat platform Omegle has been shuttered by its creator Leif K-Brooks. The site allowed users to chat via webcam using voice or through a chatbox and saw millions of monthly visitors from the time that MySpace was still around and kicking.

In a blog post expressing the reasons why he is closing Omegle, K-Brooks says that after 14 years of fighting bad actors and abusers on the platform, and the rising costs of keeping the platform alive, has become too stressful and he is concerned about his mental and physical health.

“As much as I wish circumstances were different, the stress and expense of this fight – coupled with the existing stress and expense of operating Omegle, and fighting its misuse – are simply too much. Operating Omegle is no longer sustainable, financially nor psychologically. Frankly, I don’t want to have a heart attack in my 30s,” writes the Omegle founder.

According to Similarweb, Omegle saw 50 million users in the last three months and is the 835th most popular website on the internet.

The draw of the chat platform was the ability to connect and chat with random strangers on the internet at a moment’s notice, leading to years of encounters recorded online both hilarious and bizarre. However, its anonymous nature led to its misuse by predators looking to connect with and abuse children.

Young children were often among its millions of monthly users, thanks in part to recent forays into the platform by popular streamers looking to broadcast the aforementioned hilarious and bizarre moments shared among strange internet dwellers – there are still popular videos of interactions on Omegle published to YouTube, with the most recent appearing as of one day ago.

This unfortunately put children in contact with what K-Brooks calls “evildoers” on the platform, despite moderation efforts from Omegle and steps in place to stop children from interacting with adults. “There can be no honest accounting of Omegle without acknowledging that some people misused it, including to commit unspeakably heinous crimes,” he writes.

Adding that, “Omegle worked with law enforcement agencies, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, to help put evildoers in prison where they belong. There are ‘people’ rotting behind bars right now thanks in part to evidence that Omegle proactively collected against them, and tipped the authorities off to.”

Earlier this year, the BBC found that Omegle was linked with at least 50 cases against paedophiles across the UK, the US and Australia. One victim launched a lawsuit against Omegle against for allegedly matching her with her abuser. It is worth noting that Omegle is not alone in instances of abuse against minors. Popular videogames like Roblox and Fortnite are also locations where abusers can gain access to children.

The reaction from Omegle’s user base has been mixed. Across a few 4Chan boards, infamously obsessed with the anonymous nature of Omegle’s chatting, users have said that the shuttering of the site represents the end of an era. There is also some sentiment that other older internet mainstays like 4Chan itself may be next and that the internet is “changing.”

On social media, the reaction has been similar. Many users are sharing their favourite memories of the site.