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Spam, Child Safety Prompt Microsoft to Close Chat Rooms
Mike Wendling
London Bureau Chief
London (CNSNews.com) - Microsoft will close its free, unmoderated chat rooms in nearly 30 countries and change operating procedures in others because of child safety fears, the company announced Wednesday.
The company's Internet branch, MSN, will shut down the virtual rooms in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and most of Asia starting on Oct. 14.
U.S. users will be forced to provide a credit card number to gain access to the chat rooms, and the company will begin monitoring sites in several countries, including Canada, Australia and Japan.
Chat rooms allow all comers to "talk" over the Internet in real time. Microsoft said junk mail spammers and pedophiles seeking to prey on children have increasingly used the rooms.
The company's instant messenger service, which allows one-on-one "conversation" where users can choose who to interact with, will not be affected.
"As a responsible leader, we felt it necessary to make these changes because online chat services are increasingly being misused. These changes will help protect MSN users from spam and inappropriate communication," said the company's U.K. director, Gillian Kent.
MSN claims that its chat rooms have about 1.2 million users worldwide. Its instant messaging service is more popular, with 6.3 million users per month.
The move was praised by British children's charities.
"I hope this move will give a huge boost to industry-wide efforts to achieve a safer experience for online users," said John Carr, an adviser with the Children's Charities' Coalition for Internet Safety.
"Meanwhile, I think every other chat provider in the U.K. is going to have to reflect on how, or indeed whether, they continue with their own open-access chat services," Carr said.
Chris Atkinson of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children called the move "a welcome step toward protecting children online."
But one of Microsoft's competitors in the U.K., Internet service provider Freeserve, said that the company should have moderated its rooms rather than eliminate them, reports said.
Freeserve charged that Microsoft's decision would drive users to other unmoderated chat rooms, where abuses will continue.
In Britain, several recent high-profile cases of sexual abuse of children have involved the perpetrators making initial contact with their victims over the Internet.
Faced with difficulty in using existing laws to prosecute Internet users, British lawmakers earlier this year proposed making it illegal for an adult to arrange a meeting with a child with the intent to abuse him or her.
The law will likely be considered during the next parliamentary term, which starts in November, but the Conservative Party has pushed for the measure to be passed immediately.
Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
The company's Internet branch, MSN, will shut down the virtual rooms in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and most of Asia starting on Oct. 14.
U.S. users will be forced to provide a credit card number to gain access to the chat rooms, and the company will begin monitoring sites in several countries, including Canada, Australia and Japan.
Chat rooms allow all comers to "talk" over the Internet in real time. Microsoft said junk mail spammers and pedophiles seeking to prey on children have increasingly used the rooms.
The company's instant messenger service, which allows one-on-one "conversation" where users can choose who to interact with, will not be affected.
"As a responsible leader, we felt it necessary to make these changes because online chat services are increasingly being misused. These changes will help protect MSN users from spam and inappropriate communication," said the company's U.K. director, Gillian Kent.
MSN claims that its chat rooms have about 1.2 million users worldwide. Its instant messaging service is more popular, with 6.3 million users per month.
The move was praised by British children's charities.
"I hope this move will give a huge boost to industry-wide efforts to achieve a safer experience for online users," said John Carr, an adviser with the Children's Charities' Coalition for Internet Safety.
"Meanwhile, I think every other chat provider in the U.K. is going to have to reflect on how, or indeed whether, they continue with their own open-access chat services," Carr said.
Chris Atkinson of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children called the move "a welcome step toward protecting children online."
But one of Microsoft's competitors in the U.K., Internet service provider Freeserve, said that the company should have moderated its rooms rather than eliminate them, reports said.
Freeserve charged that Microsoft's decision would drive users to other unmoderated chat rooms, where abuses will continue.
In Britain, several recent high-profile cases of sexual abuse of children have involved the perpetrators making initial contact with their victims over the Internet.
Faced with difficulty in using existing laws to prosecute Internet users, British lawmakers earlier this year proposed making it illegal for an adult to arrange a meeting with a child with the intent to abuse him or her.
The law will likely be considered during the next parliamentary term, which starts in November, but the Conservative Party has pushed for the measure to be passed immediately.
Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
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