After fourteen years, online chatting service Omegle has shut down.

Omegle was a popular website that allowed users to meet and chat with others. You could interact via video chat or you could simply text.

The website was created by a then-eighteen-year-old high school student named Leif K-Brooks in 2009. At the time, he did not expect the immediate surge of popularity the chatting service would gain.

With its increase in popularity, various forms of sketchy behavior among individuals using the website would emerge.

In the last two years, Omegle was involved in more than fifty cases against pedophiles. In an ongoing case, an individual accused the website of pairing her with a pedophile. The lawsuit was filed in 2021, ten years after the incident.

K-Brooks claimed he tried to implement several developments to improve the experiences many have faced. He has expressed his disappointment with the internet and the stress he has been struggling with.

“As much as I wish circumstances were different, the stress and expense of this fight — coupled with the existing stress and expense of operating Omegle, and fighting its misuse — are simply too much,” he wrote. “Operating Omegle is no longer sustainable, financially nor psychologically. Frankly, I don’t want to have a heart attack in my 30s.”

Despite the flaws and controversies surrounding the website, Omegle has been a huge part of the lives of many. Many may suggest that the shutdown of this service is the end of an era.