How Airtime keeps chats clean

By Zach C. Cohen, USA TODAY

Airtime, which launched this week on Facebook, offers a way to match people in video chats at random, similar to Chatroulette.

But unlike Chatroulette's laissez faire approach, the creators of Airtime are carefully monitoring what is going on there, Airtime's creators wrote on their blog.

If they find anything inappropriate, users can get banned from Airtime forever.

"One strike and you're out," it says on the blog. "It's a strict policy, because of how seriously we take user safety."

Airtime takes random screen captures of these "matched calls" to make sure there is no inappropriate activity taking place. The images are run through a system to recognize potential issues and stored in Airtime's files. Permanently.

Matched calls on Airtime conversations can be anonymous between users, but Airtime can discover an abuser's identity because their Airtime account is linked to Facebook.

Airtime doesn't monitor conversations between users who are already friends on Facebook, known as "direct calls."

The system also has facial recognition software. If there's no face on screen, well, Airtime will know something's up.

If Airtime's system finds an issue in a screenshot, the participants' names are hidden and the screenshot is sent to Airtime's staff for review.

Trying to call foul on the Big Brother tactic may not work, though. Airtime spells out the practice in its terms of service.

For those who do get around any screenshot issues, Airtime users also help monitor other users. If an Airtime account typically gets "nexted" (passed over for another chat partner) often, Airtime staffers can be sure something is being broadcast from that account that might be a no-no, according to the New York Times. There's also a "report user" button in Airtime's dashboard.

Airtime co-founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning have spoken about their nostalgia for the early days of the Internet, when people met completely by chance. They just don't want Airtime to be so random that you see something that, uh, you might not want to see.