Chatroulette Comments

This story was about Chatroulette. It had several purposes, but the main focus was about how the site has become a haven for sexual predators, and how children at the site are being subjected to objectionable material. To flesh out the story I talked to several experts from across the country. I first explained how the site works, then I gave evidence suggesting that perverts were on the site, then I gave evidence suggesting that children were on the site. From that point, I described how the children could be adversely affected by what they were seeing, and I described the reasons that perverts were using the site for perverse purposes—even though the site was not intended to be used in that way.

Most of my interviews were located on Profnet.com, which actually worked quite well. I posted my query on the site and had several experts contact me, so I chose the ones that seemed the most qualified. Everyone was helpful and willing to talk.

The hard part was focusing my story after I got all of my information. There was a lot about this site that I found interesting: a 17-year-old made it, it exploded in popularity more quickly than Twitter and Facebook, and many users quickly exposed it.

I decided to focus on the fact that perverts and children were using it. Though I had to explain quickly how the site was used, I then geared my story to illuminating the harm caused by the perverts and the psychological reasons for such lewd acts. The rest of the interesting stuff I tried to work in on the fringes to add description and so forth.