LONDON, 25 September 2003 — Microsoft is to shut down Internet chat rooms around the world out of fear they are being abused by pedophiles seeking access to children, the software giant announced yesterday.
The move was welcomed by children’s charities, but Britain’s leading Internet service provider Freeserve slammed the move as a “reckless” publicity stunt that would lead children to use less safe sites elsewhere.
Microsoft’s online subsidiary, MSN, said it would completely ax chat rooms in most countries from Oct. 14.
A few nations, including the United States, would retain services, but these will either be 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 chat rooms — and not only ours — are increasingly being used for inappropriate communications,” said Matt Whittingham, head of customer satisfaction at MSN UK.
“Many of those using chat rooms are young and interested in sex and going out. Unfortunately we know pedophiles have exploited this and the freedom they get from chat rooms to target children.”
MSN’s decision follows increasing concern among governments and children’s groups that the anonymity of chat rooms, in which users use pseudonyms to send typed messages to each other, allows pedophiles to manipulate vulnerable young users.
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 with the NSPCC charity.
But Freeserve, owned by French Internet firm Wanadoo, said a far better solution was to register users and employ chat room monitors, and slammed MSN’s decision was “nothing short of reckless.”
“Chat is an intrinsic part of the Internet and it’s not going to go away,” a Freeserve spokeswoman said. “We know about the problems of chat rooms but the answer is not shutting them down, it’s about constantly looking at ways to make them safer for users,” she said.
“All MSN is doing is sending chat room users underground. MSN’s one million-plus chat room users are not going to stop using chat, MSN are simply moving the problem elsewhere.”
And while not openly critical, a series of other Internet firms around Europe, including the continent’s leading access provider, German-based T-Online, said they had no plans to follow MSN’s lead.
“Chat rooms are a well-used service and we have to hope that not all chat rooms are going to close,” said Stephane Marcovitch from France’s Association of Internet Access Providers.
MSN plans to close all its chat rooms except subscription-only services in the United States and free but monitored forums in Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil.
In Portugal, the government said it had no plans to follow Microsoft’s example. Switzerland’s second biggest Internet access provider, Sunrise, said it had measures in place to guard against abuse.
Two Austrian companies Telering and UTA also said there were no changes afoot.
