“Now he’s waggling his tongue at me and taking off his shirt.”  It’s not what you expect to hear when you tune in to NPR, but today Robin Young, the host of Here & Now, was describing her experience with Chatroulette, a Web site that randomly links users with active webcams, live.

Here is how Chatroulette works:

• When a user connects to the site, the application requests access to the user’s webcam and microphone
• If the user agrees, the application allows the user to start a “new game”
• The “game” is that the application links the user to another user who also has an active webcam and microphone
• If the two linked users want to interact with each other over their webcams and microphones, they can
• If one of the users does not want to interact with the other, he or she clicks “next” and is randomly linked to another user

The idea simple, and, with users from all over the globe (the application was created by a teenager in Moscow), it could result in some interesting connections.

Teens are fascinated with other people because experiencing other people helps them understand themselves.  It is one of the reasons why teens like Facebook, MySpace, and, now, Chatroulette.

Unfortunately, the communications on Chatroulette cannot be filtered, and, as Robin Young experienced, exhibitionists are thrilled.

In my own sampling of Chatroulette, I was linked with dull-faced adolescent boys, groups of teenage girls all crammed around the same computer, and masturbating adult men.

Robin Young’s guest, author and adolescent psychologist Sharon Maxwell, suggests that parents prevent the computers of young children and tweens from being able to access Chatroulette.  For teenagers, Maxwell prescribes direct and honest communication:

“You need to proactively get on there and say, ‘Listen, I know about this thing called Chatroulette.  At some point I know that you will probably go on.  This is what you can expect, and this is how I expect you to behave because what you say online actually matters.’”

Rather than issue a blanket prohibition or condemnation of the Internet in general or of Chatroulette specifically, Maxwell is advocating for parents to be aware of their children’s world, to demonstrate an understanding of it, and to address forthrightly the dangers, the benefits, and the strategies for maximizing the latter while mitigating the former.

I could not agree more.