# Is random video chat safe?

Random video chat got a bad name for good reasons. Here is what made it risky and how a verified room changes the safety equation.

- Date: February 24, 2026
- Reading time: 4 min read
- Tags: safety, video chat, moderation

The honest answer is that old school random video chat was not safe, and everyone knew it. Anyone could join, there was no accountability, and moderation was always one step behind. Omegle <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/08/omegle-shutdown-after-14-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="underline hover:text-foreground">eventually shut down</a> over exactly these issues.

## What made it risky
Total anonymity with zero barrier to entry is the core problem. When there is no account and no consequence, bad actors have nothing to lose. No amount of after the fact moderation fully solves that.

## What a sign in requirement changes
Requiring GitHub sign in raises the floor. You are talking to people who have a real developer account tied to their identity, not a throwaway. It does not make the internet perfect, but it removes the easy anonymity that made the old model so messy.

On top of that, calls run peer to peer over <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebRTC_API" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="underline hover:text-foreground">WebRTC</a>, so your stream goes directly to the other person. We do not record calls.