by Bill Stevenson
Children Webmags Technical and Production Manager
The
software giant, Microsoft, will shut almost all the chatrooms
it operates through its MSN websites in 34 countries on October
14th. The move follows many cases where paedophiles have used
chatrooms to groom young people for sexual abuse and where sinister
exploitation has led to arrangement of dangerous meetings between
children and strangers. The only chatrooms which will remain
will either have their content monitored for inappropriate messages
or will be restricted to membership on a subscription basis which
will allow users to be easily traced.
The
Children Webmag and many childrens charities have welcomed the
decision which will undoubtedly protect youngsters from potential
harm. Chris Atkinson, internet safety expert at the NSPCC, 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 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
to target children.
The
statement of intent by Microsoft is clear and unequivocal. Many
of those using chatrooms are young and interested in sex and
going out. Unfortunately, we know that paedophiles have exploited
this and the freedom they get from chatrooms to target children.
Mark Whittingham, head of customer satisfaction at MSN UK, said,
We have had enough of our services being used in this way which
is why we have decided to close down those which are not free
and not monitored.
Its
not as if the dangers havent been made aware to the public. The
Home Office launched a one and a half million pound awareness
campaign targeting parents and children and they promised a new
offence of grooming children by paedophiles so that a person
could be prosecuted before a sexual offence was actually committed.
Despite
that campaign, many parents still regard home internet computers
as a basic educational necessity and seem happy to allow their
children to wander freely around the chatrooms, a bit like sending
their children into the streets at night with only their wits
for protection. One can only hope that our childrens home staff
and school IT staff are showing more responsibility.
Dr Rachel O' Connell from the Cyberspace Research Unit at the
University of Central Lancashire said, The only way we can really
measure the problem is through the number of cases that have
gone through the courts. There have been around 18 or 19 cases
now involving grooming. These are very serious cases.
I do respect the point that Microsoft, as a company, do have
the right to close down these things - but there are some serious
and grave concerns. We tell children all the time not to give
out personal contact details such as mobile phone numbers.
What this move is likely to precipitate is that those children
who have very strong attachments to those people they talk to
online will be far more likely now to give out their phone numbers,
e-mail addresses and possibly real world addresses. Psychologically
these children are going to be very hard to separate from their
online friends, so they are going to be more likely to give out
contact details. Paedophiles are going to exploit that in the
coming weeks before these chatrooms are shut down. That's a serious
concern.
We found in a study of 9-16 year olds that 1 in 5 use chatrooms.
But a large proportion of them, 1 in 8, use instant messenger.
So what's going to happen is that those guys who have been grooming
children online and are currently engaged in that will simply
encourage people to use MSN Messenger.
This might form a small dent in their activities for the time
being, but because of the way it is being handled right now,
and the concerns about children giving out mobile phone and using
MSN Messenger, it will just basically shift from chatrooms to
IM and mobile phones and that's a real cause for concern.
There are other cynical views of Microsofts motives in closing
down an expensive resource, but from all of us at the Children
Webmag Thank you Microsoft, for taking the moral lead. We can
only hope that others will follow suit.
