chat room

11 Stories

Virtual Reality Chat Room Stunned as Robot Has Seizure

'There was nothing we could do'

(Newser) - It was business as usual in the virtual reality chat room until the robot had a seizure. The Verge reports the unnerving incident happened Wednesday on VRChat, where users in the forms of avatars can interact with each other. According to the Daily Dot , "Morty, Sonic, Knuckles, a dude...

Facebook Goes '90s With Chat 'Rooms' App

Users choose their own names in anonymous iOS chat app

(Newser) - Facebook's "anonymity" app is finally revealed, and as PC Magazine reports, it's "a throwback to the popular chat rooms of the mid-90s"—with a few modern updates. The Rooms app , currently available only for iPhone, lets users create rooms to chat about whatever interests them....

'Suicide Predator' Banned From Internet

Minn. man accused of surfing Internet for victims to coax into suicide

(Newser) - A Minnesota man accused of seeking out suicidal people online and persuading them to kill themselves has been banned from using the Internet until his next court hearing. William Melchert-Dinkel—who allegedly posed as a female nurse in suicide-related chat rooms—has been charged with two counts of aiding suicides,...

Google Buzz Dangerous for Kids: Parents

Children unprepared for virtual world share more than is prudent

(Newser) - Normally vigilant parents are in a tizzy over Google’s surreptitious addition of its Buzz social networking client to Gmail, which they say enables kids with little understanding of what is prudent to share online to enter a dangerous world. “This is foisted on children and they love it,...

Chatroulette: Next Big Thing or Next Dumb Thing?

Here's who you meet in vid chat—over and over

(Newser) - Chatroulette is getting “next big thing” buzz all over the Internet, with many swearing that the site, which lets you video chat with random people all over the world, is a total revolution. And it is—“for about six and a half minutes,” writes Josh Kurp on...

Sex Can Cause Sneezing: Study
 Sex Can Cause Sneezing: Study 
Dec 19, 2008 4:30 PM CST

Sex Can Cause Sneezing: Study

Docs suspect faulty wiring, and that condition may be more common than realized

(Newser) - Sexual thoughts cause some people to have fits of sneezing, the Guardian reports. Psychiatrists at a British hospital were turned on to the problem by a patient, and a survey of Internet chat rooms found others afflicted, including three people who sneezed after orgasm.

Chat Rooms Return—in 3-D
 Chat Rooms Return—in 3-D 
Mar 31, 2008 11:11 AM CDT

Chat Rooms Return—in 3-D

New companies try to bring real-time socializing back to web

(Newser) - A group of Silicon Valley startups is looking to bring the "social" back into social-networking and other popular websites, the New York Times reports. Vivaty is developing 3-D virtual chat rooms users can embed in web pages—including social-networking profiles—and will begin Facebook testing this week. And Meebo’...

After Beacon 'Screw Up' Facebook Ups Privacy

Online chat coming too

(Newser) - Facebook is launching a series of new privacy features today, allowing users to better pinpoint who can see which parts of their information, PC World reports. Privacy has been a watchword at Facebook ever since the PR disaster that was the Beacon advertising platform, which tracked users online. “With...

Aussies Censor Internet
Aussies Censor Internet
Dec 23, 2007 11:20 PM CST

Aussies Censor Internet

New ratings system Down Under

(Newser) - Australian Internet users are getting wary about new regulations meant to keep minors away from mature content, Ars Technica reports. A stringent new ratings system to be introduced in January is meant to stop kids from accessing adult-oriented content, but critics say it will be child's play to get around,...

Police Bust Huge Global Pedophile Ring

31 children, babies rescued; chatroom showed live video of sexual abuse

(Newser) - Detectives in 36 countries have busted a global pedophile ring, rescuing 31 young children and babies who were sexually abused live on the Internet, and identifying 700 suspects. "You could go and if you were in the club, arrange a time and a place when online you could view...

Suicide Takes A Communal Turn
Suicide Takes A Communal Turn
Apr 23, 2007 2:07 PM CDT

Suicide Takes A Communal Turn

Japanese groups gather in online chat rooms to plot very real suicides

(Newser) - Of all the things initiated in anonymous online chat rooms, group suicide has to be the most macabre. David Samuels explores  why hundreds of Japanese adults, previously unknown to each other, have gathered to die together in small groups, often asphyxiating themselves in cars by carefully placing charcoal burners to...

11 Stories
Most Read on Newser