Canadian Leif K. Brooks founded the site when he was 18 with the idea of meeting people online “the way you would meet someone on the street.” But according to the founder, the site was also used by people who committed “unspeakable heinous acts” there.
Partly for this reason, he said, it’s not “financially and psychologically” possible to keep the site running. “I don’t want to have a heart attack in my 30s,” he wrote on the Omegle website.
During the Corona crisis, the chat site gained popularity around the world, especially among children and young people. Concerns about the site have increased in the Netherlands and many other countries, with people warned against chatting with strangers.
Earlier this year, journalists BBC Omegle is known to have been mentioned in dozens of possible child abuse cases, including in the UK, US and Australia. The site received approximately 73 million visitors worldwide each month.
