If you spend a lot of time worrying about who your kids are talking to over Skype or other Internet video chat programs, prepare to freak out some more. On Chatroulette.com, they don't even know who they'll be chatting with—or if that person will have pants on.
(For an excellent introduction to Chatroulette, see this video on Silicon Alley Insider.)
Chatroulette is already enough of a cultural phenomenon that it's made it to the Daily Show and most of the morning news shows. If you haven't heard yet, Chatroulette randomly connects a webcam user with strangers over video chat. They can then start a conversation, or hit "next" and try again.
There's just one problem: There's a very high ratio of perverts in the pool of potential chat partners.
There are the occasional entertaining moments, as this video shows. (Warning: contains a man dressed as a 1980's cartoon villain.)
A clone site of Chatroulette, RandomDorm.com, is trying to fix the pervert problem by limiting its audience to users connected through college networks. In order to get access, you have to provide an educational institution email address—one that ends in .edu.
Somehow, I'm not sure that really will help screen out the naked male genitals.
