AUSTIN (March 8, 2010)—Parents should keep their children away from the four-month old Web site chatroulette.com, which pairs strangers for online chats and may expose young uses to sexually explicit behavior, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott warned Monday.

Anyone with a Web cam and Internet access can use the site.

Registration isn’t required and a rule that users must be at least 16 years old isn’t enforced, Abbott said.

The site’s disclaimer also says that, "Chatroulette does not tolerate broadcasting obscene, offending, pornographic material and we will have to block users who violate these rules from using our service”

But the Attorney General’s Cyber Crimes Unit checked out the site and Abbott said nearly half of the randomly selected users that investigators encountered immediately exposed themselves and engaged in sexually explicit acts on camera.

Abbott reminded parents Monday to put computers in common rooms so they can monitor their children’s use and urged parents not to allow children to have computers in their bedrooms or to use Web cameras.

The chatdroulette.com site was launched in November by a 17-year-old Russian high school student and has about a half-a-million daily visitors.