Microsoft is to shut down internet chatrooms around the world out of fear they are being abused by paedophiles seeking access to children, the software giant announced on Wednesday.
In a move welcomed by children’s charities, Microsoft’s online subsidiary MSN said it would completely axe chatrooms in most countries from October 14.
A few nations, including the United States, would retain services, but these will be either monitored or subscription-only, meaning users have to first give personal details including a credit-card number.
”Most people treat this type of service with respect but we have found that chatrooms — and not only ours — are increasingly being used for inappropriate communications,” said Matt Whittingham, head of customer satisfaction at MSN in the United Kingdom.
”Many of those using chatrooms are young and interested in sex and going out. Unfortunately we know paedophiles have exploited this and the freedom they get from chatrooms to target children.”
There was no immediate word on whether MSN’s main competitors, including the highly popular Yahoo service, would follow suit.
MSN’s decision follows increasing concern among governments and children’s groups that the anonymity of chatrooms, in which users use pseudonyms to send typed messages to each other, allows paedophiles to manipulate vulnerable young users.
On Monday, a 51-year-old British man pleaded guilty in a US court to charges relating to travelling to the country with the intention of having sex with a 14-year-old girl he met via the internet.
Barry Beadle was arrested by the FBI in April after spending several nights with the girl at a hotel in Iowa.
Additionally, internet ”spammers”, who send out huge quantities of unsolicited advertising e-mails — much of which is sexually explicit — are also known to comb chatrooms for e-mail addresses.
British children’s charities welcomed MSN’s move.
”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,” said Chris Atkinson, an internet safety expert.
”There has been a very substantial increase in sex abuse cases as a result of contacts made through chatrooms,” added John Carr, an internet adviser to the charity NCH.
However, other experts warned that the decision might simply push many children into more obscure corners of the internet, where unrestricted chat services could continue.
Internet technology makes it easy for companies and even individuals to provide simple chat software on sites where it is impossible to verify users’ true identities.
MSN said that it will close all chatrooms except subscription-only services in the US and free, monitored forums in in Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil.
MSN says it has local internet content in 33 countries and in 17 languages. It claims a total of 201-million users worldwide, and says about 1,2-million of them use its chat services. — Sapa-AFP