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Russian video chat site mulls todger filter
Input from Ashton Kutcher, Shawn Fanning
Video chat site Chatroulette may deploy genitalia-filtering software to stem the considerable tide of pervs flocking to the property to show world+dog their penises, TechCrunch has reported.
With more than a million visitors per day, the Russian site is generating plenty of interest from Silicon Valley investors. The, er, sticking point has, er, long been all the men eager to blast nude images of themselves to perfect strangers in the site's round-robin fashion of randomly changing chat partners. The anything-goes environment was enough to prompt Ashton Kutcher to demand Chatroulette founder Andrey Ternovskiy clean up the site after the actor discovered what his stepdaughter had witnessed on the site, according to The New Yorker.
The todger-filtering software would be programmed to scan video feeds for male genitalia and block those that turn up positive. Users who are consistently skipped over by other users would also be blocked, TechCrunch reckons.
The publication says Ternovskiy is receiving advisory support from Napster founder Shawn Fanning, a programmer who ought to know a little something about the importance of filtering technology to a viable business plan. It remains unclear if Ternovskiy plans to bend to the will of those who want to clean up the site, but the filtering software is definitely something investors are pushing for.
“If he doesn't make a dramatic move soon to clean up the service, the brand will be permanently tarnished," one investor said. The article is here ®