MSN to close down chat rooms

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

Microsoft axes chatrooms

by SEAN POULTER, Daily Mail

24th September 2003

 

Thousands of internet chatrooms are to be closed in a crackdown on child sex attackers.

 

Microsoft is axing its services in Britain and most of the world in a bid to shield youngsters from web perverts.

 

The move - to be announced today by the US giant's British operation MSN UK - was welcomed as "momentous" by children's charities who urged other Internet services to follow suit.

 

Microsoft's decision follows growing evidence that child molesters and rapists are using chatrooms to "groom" young victims.

 

Paedophiles are creating bogus identities, and pretending to be younger than they are, so they can arrange meetings and prey on children.

 

Home Secretary David Blunkett is so alarmed he has announced laws to make it an offence to use the Net to groom a child for sex.

 

Last night, the Government announced its support for the MSN initiative, which was taken in response to pleas from parents, children's groups and the police.

 

The plug will be pulled on October 14. All MSN chatrooms will be closed, except in New Zealand and Brazil, where a monitoring system will be introduced. Any suspicious conversations will be terminated.

 

Chatrooms in the US and Canada will also survive, but access will be limited under a subscription service to people who can prove their identity and address. This will prevent users creating bogus identities.

 

In Britain, 15 cases of paedophiles abusing children after contacting them through the Net have been reported. Nine of the victims were girls aged 12 to 15.

 

But this is the tip of the iceberg. Police forces across the country are currently investigating many other cases.

 

MSN UK claims 1.2million individuals log onto its chatrooms each month.

 

A similar number use rival sites operated by AOL and Yahoo, while there are numerous smaller companies running chatrooms.

 

In fact, AOL quietly shut down its UK open chatrooms earlier this year, it emerged last night.

 

The company said it responded to fears about paedophiles targeting children and felt it could not properly monitor email conversations.

 

Surprisingly, the decision was never formally announced and the company issued details only in response to the MSN news.

 

Now only AOL subscribers, who register their names and addresses with the company, can participate in monitored chatrooms.

 

Gillian Kent, the director of MSN UK, said: "As a responsible leader we felt it necessary to make these changes because online chat services are increasingly being misused.

 

"A small percentage of people are abusing chatroom services in a serious way. We are talking about pornographers and perverts.

 

"There is evidence that men are approaching children and are looking to meet them and follow through in the way their sick minds work.

 

"They are dangers lurking in the internet. Just like society, the internet is a dangerous place to be at times."

 

Mrs Kent, who has a daughter of four and a ten-year-old nephew, added: "I have become increasingly worried about access to inappropriate material."

 

MSN said another reason for its action was the increasing hijacking of chatrooms by pornographers who bombard users with sexually explicit material.

 

One in five chatroom messages is pornographic. People who click on an apparently innocent message are confronted by obscene images.

 

John Carr, chairman of the National Children's Home and Charities' Coalition for Internet Safety, said: "This is a momentous announcement. Here we have the world's leading internet service acknowledging that open, free, unmoderated chat cannot be made completely safe for consumers and children.

 

"I hope this move will give a huge boost to industry-wide efforts to achieve a safer experience for online users.

 

"Meanwhile, I think every other chat provider in the UK is going to have to reflect on how, or indeed whether, they continue with their own open access chat services."

 

NSPCC policy adviser, Chris Atkinson, said: "This announcement is a very positive step forward and will help close a major supply line for sex abusers who go to great lengths to gain access to innocent children by grooming them on the internet.

 

"For too long we have been told by the Internet industry that chatrooms are global and that nothing could be done to stop their escalation and their use by adults who target children.

 

"MSN is showing that this is not the case and we hope other Internet service providers and chatroom providers take similar action to allow children to use the Internet safely."

 

Home Office minister Paul Goggins said: "We welcome any development which increases the safety of children who use the internet.

 

"We look forward to continuing to work closely with Microsoft and other service providers who are part of the Taskforce on Child Protection on the internet.

 

"Together we are determined to ensure that the highest priority is given to the protection of children in the services offered."

 

Police believe one child in five visiting chatrooms has been approached online by a paedophile.

 

Research by the University of Central Lancashire suggested one in ten youngsters aged nine to 16 had met in person someone they first contacted over the Net.

 

Last year, a convicted rapist out on licence from a seven-year jail term was caught using the Internet to groom a girl of 11 for sex. Scot James Gilmour, 50, pretended to be 13 to arrange a meeting.

 

In other cases, older men in America have made contact with young girls in this country and even arranged meetings.

 

Others use chatrooms to lure youngsters into so-called cyber sex conversations, using obscene language to satisfy their perverted desires.

 

WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!?!??!?!?!?

 

Never mind that the hysteria over pedophiles and other sick fucks isn't enough to force MSN down, remember, it's an EXCUSE. Not a reason.

 

Sure, there is no way in hell that they could stop everybody from doing that sort of thing. It's remotely possible to stop some of the sicker rooms from being made, but it appears that they want to end conversations between people.

 

Go here - http://chat.msn.com/find.msnw?cat=TN

 

I guarantee you will find some odd rooms.

 

MSN is selling out for the money again, for the fools that want to put up money to still chat.

 

Let me quote something.

 

But a MSN rival, Freeserve, owned by France Telecom's Wanadoo, accused the Redmond, Wash.-based company of making a well-publicized move because it wasn't prepared to invest in policing the chatrooms, the London Guardian said.

 

"All MSN is doing is forcing users to go elsewhere, potentially to non-moderated chatrooms with little or no protection," a Freeserve spokeswoman said.

 

That hits the point. MSN doesn't want to, nor can they police this sort of thing. Nothing sort of 'whisper monitoring' can stop that.

 

Anybody have any numbers on how many MSN meetings end up with stuff like that happening?

 

I bet MSN thinks of charging for Messenger too, I bet that'd make the children safer too.

 

MSN gotta be the nanny, since none of these children have parents or anything.

 

Anybody else see this as a stupid move (inspired by an excuse)?

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Uh, aren't most just using IRC these days anyway?

[rising up out of the back seat-nuh 0]

meh, it's just another chapter of Britains mob mentality towards paedophiles.

 

Where I live, a registered paediatrician got attacked because a bunch of locals thought that "paediatrician" meant the same thing as "paedophile"

 

Stupid humans...

[Jingus 0]

Home Secretary David Blunkett is so alarmed he has announced laws to make it an offence to use the Net to groom a child for sex.

Isn't it already illegal to "groom a child for sex", no matter what method or medium is being used?

 

Chatrooms in the US and Canada will also survive, but access will be limited under a subscription service to people who can prove their identity and address. This will prevent users creating bogus identities.

 

It's NOT about the money, we SWEAR.

 

In Britain, 15 cases of paedophiles abusing children after contacting them through the Net have been reported. Nine of the victims were girls aged 12 to 15.

 

Over how long a time period? How does that compare to the numbers of other pedophilic activities? What does "reported" mean, anyway? Have they convicted 15 pedophiles for this stuff, or is it just hearsay?

 

But this is the tip of the iceberg. Police forces across the country are currently investigating many other cases.

 

How many other cases? How many are likely to actually be perverts trying to fuck kids, as opposed to kids just fucking around online?

 

The company said it responded to fears about paedophiles targeting children and felt it could not properly monitor email conversations.

 

Email conversations? I thought this whole problem was about chatrooms. How did email suddenly get dragged into it? And you can't (and shouldn't) monitor email any more than you can monitor private phone calls.

 

MSN said another reason for its action was the increasing hijacking of chatrooms by pornographers who bombard users with sexually explicit material.

 

Aren't the chatrooms moderated? Are the moderators competent? Aren't the rules strict enough? You post porn, you're banned, period. Pretty simple.

 

One in five chatroom messages is pornographic. People who click on an apparently innocent message are confronted by obscene images.

 

Where'd they get that "one in five" number from? It seems awfully high, from my experience.

 

NSPCC policy adviser, Chris Atkinson, said: "This announcement is a very positive step forward and will help close a major supply line for sex abusers who go to great lengths to gain access to innocent children by grooming them on the internet.

 

A major supply line for sex abusers? Go close down the child brothels in Singapore. There are far, FAR more abuses committed there than have ever been on the entire internet combined, ever.

 

"For too long we have been told by the Internet industry that chatrooms are global and that nothing could be done to stop their escalation and their use by adults who target children.

 

Yes, chatrooms are indeed global. A pervert has to be geographically close to a child in order to do anything, unless they're able and willing to travel a damn long way.

 

Police believe one child in five visiting chatrooms has been approached online by a paedophile.

 

Once again, where the hell are these figures coming from? Are they being guestimated out of thin air?

 

Research by the University of Central Lancashire suggested one in ten youngsters aged nine to 16 had met in person someone they first contacted over the Net.

 

So, 10% of kids have met in person someone they met online. So? That's not a staggering figure for just meeting random people.

 

Last year, a convicted rapist out on licence from a seven-year jail term was caught using the Internet to groom a girl of 11 for sex. Scot James Gilmour, 50, pretended to be 13 to arrange a meeting.

 

So after all this fear-mongering and hysteria, this article manages to quote exactly one case of a pedophile using the Net to lure in kids.

 

In other cases, older men in America have made contact with young girls in this country and even arranged meetings.

 

How many men are out there who:

1. Are pedophiles

2. Use the internet to attract victims

3. Use these MSN chatrooms

4. Live in America

5. Have the time, money, and inclination to fly to the U.K.

 

Somehow, I think the number of guys like that (of whom there are ravening hordes, if you believe this drivel) is fairly small.

 

Others use chatrooms to lure youngsters into so-called cyber sex conversations, using obscene language to satisfy their perverted desires.

 

Once again, where are the chatroom moderators? Any minor being involved in any cybersex is grounds for banning both the kid and the other party. What's the big problem here?

 

And finally, why is all this fuss centered on Great Britain? With the USA's much greater population and more lax law enforcement, you'd think that the problem would be much greater there. (Or in places like Japan, where kiddie porn is much more common than in the West.) Why does mother England get all the attention here?

 

And finally, where the hell are the parents?

 

Little girl: "Hey mom, I'm going out to meet this complete stranger I've never seen or talked to before, see you later."

Mom: "Is it a pedophile?"

Girl: "I don't know."

Mom: "Well okay honey, go have a good time."

 

Meh.

[Firestarter 0]

Where I live, a registered paediatrician got attacked because a bunch of locals thought that "paediatrician" meant the same thing as "paedophile"

If it makes you feel better, you guys don't have a monopoly on this kind of stupidity.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Yahoo should cut off their chat due to the stupidity of 98.7% of the people who use yahoo chat.

[Cran Da Maniac 0]

Aren't the chatrooms moderated? Are the moderators competent? Aren't the rules strict enough? You post porn, you're banned, period. Pretty simple.

 

Most of the MSN chatrooms are moderated by volunteer host. But then again you do have other chats that users can make. It's a bitch to monitor cuz you got certain guidelines to follow and all that. And there is a lot of porn in those rooms. Sometimes half of a 50 member room would be nothing but porn bots.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

I say we ban playgrounds because child molesters scope out kids there...

[Guest Breetai]

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