--- title: "Guy Logs Onto Omegle and Gets Matched With Himself, Doing Explicit Acts" description: "Like something straight out of a science-fiction horror movie — and there are plenty of examples to chose from — a 21-year-old from Scandinavia says he was paired with his younger self doing explicit sexual acts when he recently logged back on to one-on-one-with-a-stranger service Omegle. When he was 14, the man identified as Michael […]" date: "2021-04-14" modified: "2021-04-21" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/guy-omegle-matched-with-himself-explicit-acts" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "ai chatbot" - "chatbots" - "omegle" --- # Guy Logs Onto Omegle and Gets Matched With Himself, Doing Explicit Acts ![A man from Scandinavia says he was paired with his younger self doing explicit sexual acts when he recently logged back on to Omegle.]() *\Image: Futurism\* Like something straight out of a science-fiction horror movie — and there are [plenty]() of [examples]() to chose from — a 21-year-old from Scandinavia says he was paired with a video of his younger self doing explicit sexual acts when he recently logged back on to cam chat service Omegle. Back when he was younger, the man, identified by the first name Michael in the *BBC*'s reporting, sometimes used the site to masturbate with strangers. "I started going on the site again and started doing 'stuff' on camera with different people," Michael told the *BBC*. "Video sex." But he had no idea his younger self would come back to haunt him. "I'd quit the site for over a year but one afternoon I randomly got paired with a video of myself on the website doing 18+ stuff," Michael told the British broadcaster. "Someone had recorded me masturbating and had been using it for at least a year." Understandably, Michael was horrified. The service wasn't just simply playing a recording. "It was like a fully advanced system with different video sequences of me doing different stuff," he recalled. Omegle told the *BBC* it was "deeply disturbed" by the story and is hoping to enhance its "moderation practices to eliminate" any chances of the situation happening again. "The inappropriate behavior that has occurred, while a very small percentage of the millions of daily interactions, is deeply disturbing to me and unacceptable," Omegle creator Leif K Brooks told the broadcaster. "I am constantly stressed about it, but I find peace that at least my face is not in it," Michael said. "But it pains me I am used that way to hurt other people. In fact, I believe this is the way I was groomed into the site as a 14-year-old, although I can't confirm the other person was fake at that time." It's a troubling story, especially considering the website saw a [massive increase in traffic]() during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among younger people. Shockingly, as the *BBC* points out, there is no way to report strangers on the website. "I can't imagine how distressing it must be to find someone using a video of yourself in this way, but these virtual cam bots are something we do see being used to trick and coerce children into sexual activity," Sarah Smith, from the internet safety charity The Internet Watch Foundation, told the *BBC*. The company claims it is using an automated artificial intelligence-based system to monitor the site around the clock, yet Michael's story goes to show that it's still impossible to crack down on sex-baiting bots. **READ MORE:** [Omegle: 'I'm being used as sex-baiting bot' on video chat site]() \[*BBC*\] **More on deepfakes:** *[Young Female Twitter Star Turns Out to Be 50-Year-Old Man Using Deepfakes ]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()