topic I keep accidentally watching live streams in Depression

I keep accidentally watching live streams

Earth Girl — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 06:07:35 GMT

I was watching shorts videos a little while ago and in one of them, this girl was looking at the camera I think, and I was watching the "shorts" video and reading the comments beside it. Sometimes when I watch shorts videos, if I get worried that I might actually be watching some type of live thing (which has happened before), I press pause of the video. I did this a few times with this video when I started getting suspicious and when I pressed pause, it paused, so I thought everything was fine. A little bit later, she turned to look at the screen again and looked shocked and then she looked at where the camera was on her laptop and then she raised her hand a certain way as if to say "wtf" so I pressed pause again and scrolled down.

I had grey marking tape on my camera (my dad put it on there after I realized that people were watching me play Sims - I never even set my computer to do any of this, but I keep getting seen by people and sometimes vies versa on my laptop) so I originally thought that at least people probably won't see me if this happens again.

I told my mum about it and she said, "well if you could see her, many other people would also have been able to see her and she'd be able to see them too, so it was probably someone else watching her that did something weird that she was reacting to." I tried to tell her that I was for some reason the only one who she could see, but she doesn't think so.

Should I go back to the shorts video and apologize to her in the comments, or would that make it more weird? I'm scared to go back, but I would like to explain that I thought I was watching a shorts video and say sorry because I probably looked like a real weirdo.

Re: I keep accidentally watching live streams

Croix — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 09:03:49 GMT

Dear Earth Girl.

Provided on any computer or laptop or tablet you use has tape over the camera lens there is no possibility you are being watched, so no I would not respond in any way to anything you see such as you are contemplating. Apart from being misplaced it does give a stranger some details about yourself and possibly your internet address, not a good idea

If you wish to check most computers and laptops have a built in 'camera' app. If you use this as a test and it only shows a blank you can be sure your dad's tape is in place and working.

When you look on line you see all sorts of people, and some are actors and pretend responses, others were actually in conversation with someone else and recorded it for playback. None are seeing you.

You had already picked out the most sensible check - if you can pause a "live" stream and then resume it from the same place it is not live.

So please do not worry

Croix

Re: I keep accidentally watching live streams

audiology — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 23:50:19 GMT

Hi again Earth Girl!

Following on from the last topic of yours I commented on a couple weeks ago covering a similar subject matter - I would once again like to assure you that there is zero chance anybody was watching you and you have absolutely nothing to worry about. As Croix already put it - the fact that you had masking tape covering your camera guarantees nobody would be able to see you. I would also like to reiterate what Croix mentioned about you already absolutely hitting the nail on the head at the beginning of your topic - if you can pause and resume a video at your own leisure, without it impacting the overall length of the video, it isn't live, so please do not worry.