MSN UK to axe chat 'To protect users'

#1 · 24-09-2003 2:27am #1

Never used it but thought some ppl here might. MSN is to close all of its unmoderated chatrooms in the UK.

As part of an overall effort by MSN and Microsoft to provide consumers with a safer, more secure and positive overall online experience, MSN has decided to no longer offer MSN Chat in this market beginning October 14 2003.

This change is intended to help protect MSN users from unsolicited information such as spam and to better protect children from inappropriate communication online. We will ensure you get the best and safest customer experience during those last weeks where free unmoderated chat will still be available.

MSN wants you to enjoy the Internet safely. Click here to find out more about how to ensure your online experience is positive.

Why is MSN doing this?

The increase in abuse of the Internet, such as the massive growth of spam and the increase in unsolicited and inappropriate material, particularly with regards to children, has led us to this decision.

Who wants some cotton wool then?

:rolleyes:

Link to article

tman · 24-09-2003 2:33am

i used msn chatrooms years ago, i soon discovered that they're only any use for flaming people:rolleyes:

MarcusGarvey · 24-09-2003 6:37am

Great PR Coup by MSN. We're protecting your kids from Paedos.

I'm sure the fact that it costs em and theres too much work involved in running them when they get sfa of a return had nothing to do with it.

sceptre · 24-09-2003 8:02am

I reckon we should just ban children and turn off the internet. It's packed with probable paedophiles, you know.

BuffyBot · 24-09-2003 8:20am

MSN's rooms were unmoderated and the rooms were used by a *lot* of children.

Child meets bad paedophile-type-person on MSN chat=bad PR for MSN. No-one blames the parents etc.

Moderations costs a lot of money. MSN doesn't charge for access, therefore it makes sense commercially (why pay for mdoeration and get nothing in return) and from a PR point of view to scrap the rooms. They can't afford the damage a scandal would do to their brand.

Sposs · 24-09-2003 9:47am

Its Microsoft why give anything for free when you can charge for it!!! :mad:

scojones · 24-09-2003 9:55am

I never used it either but i'd imagine that it sucked ass anyway. A prejudice decision, maybe.... It's only a chat service, it's not as if they will have no way of chatting now. No doubt they have those paedo's in their msn messenger list. Oo0o the next thing to go, according to msn. They want you to pay for it. Direct the little children to efnet, they can deal with them :rolleyes:

Lex_Diamonds · 24-09-2003 10:11am

Originally posted by Sposs
Its Microsoft why give anything for free when you can charge for it!!! :mad:

We dont pay for Hotmail or Internet Explorer.

Wook · 24-09-2003 10:12am

why do we never blame the parrents ?!¬

oneweb · 24-09-2003 10:25am

Originally posted by Lex_Diamonds
We dont pay for Hotmail or Internet Explorer.

Hotmail started charging for POP3 access and Mobile access. The reason IE became free was to try blow away the competition. Plus it sucks so bad and hasn't been updated properly in a long time (they think they've sealed its success :rolleyes:) they couldn't charge for it now.

Personally I blame the parents who show no interest in what their kids are doing. And soaps - the only time the net is brought into a storyline is when there's a stalker or scumbag involved :rolleyes:

Tiesto · 24-09-2003 10:39am

whether or not its to "protect users"
im still glad they are closing them.
i went into the microsoft chat rooms just there to see what its like and the amount of porn spam is unreal!!!!
seems to be mostly spammers in there.

Kairo · 24-09-2003 11:01am

I think its good that they're getting rid of these public chat rooms. Not as much kiddies would use the messanger service, despite the fact that its probably crawling with paedo's also.

While I agree, this is a good move by microsoft (tho it more than likely is a PR thing, rather than them caring about the well being of the kids

) , kids still need to be educated properly about the net and its uses.

Or, to hell with it..let them run free! Let the internet educate them. If you've common sense, you'd stay the f*dge away msn chat anyway

MarcusGarvey · 24-09-2003 11:02am

Originally posted by Lex_Diamonds
We dont pay for Hotmail or Internet Explorer.

Lots of aspects of Hotmail are being charged for now. Which is fair enough.

Development of IE has now stopped. Theres not going to be anymore free versions of IE and Outlook Express will not be developed any further either.

Big Chief · 24-09-2003 11:29am

Personally I blame the parents who show no interest in what their kids are doing.

hmm yes and no, this is a touchy subject if you ask me and its not to be put in black and white..

so msn closed some chat rooms, wow wee.. so this may reduce the amount ive seen on the news lately of -

"paedo strikes again, 13/14/15 year old girl missing in <enter random country name here>"

which can only be good..

i dont use chatrooms, infact if i end up on one i tend to cringe...

full of little kids and geeks... (sorry but its true..)

OMG A/S/L?!!?!!?! etc...

if your that bothered by the actual closing down of the chatrooms (and not just to take a dig at MS like alot of ppl up there ^), why dont you just use yahoo? or is that to simple...

you may resume with your MS/Bill Gates bashing etc....

The Beer Baron · 24-09-2003 1:11pm

I just wish Yahoo would follow suit.
I work in an internet café and I absolutley loath that crashtastic piece of crap.

tman · 24-09-2003 9:58pm

Originally posted by The Beer Baron
I just wish Yahoo would follow suit.
I work in an internet café and I absolutley loath that crashtastic piece of crap.

they're closing the chat rooms, not the instant messenger

25-09-2003 12:43pm

I think its good that they're getting rid of these public chat rooms. Not as much kiddies would use the messanger service, despite the fact that its probably crawling with paedo's also

It'll all just move to IRC Servers, where moderation is non-existent.

This declaration doesn't mean anything. The internet always will have some hype, and most companies will at some stage point to the internet, say something is wrong, and reap the rewards from the media exposure...

seamus · 25-09-2003 12:49pm

It's PR, plain and simple. Msn chat rooms are just the best known ones, not the only ones.

The day they close down, our young friends will just go to google, type in "Chat rooms" and now they're just a few clicks away from exactly what MSN claim to be protecting them from. :rolleyes:

Pointless.

Shinji · 25-09-2003 1:04pm

This is about protecting themselves, not about protecting children.

Admittedly, if it drives the kids to IRC, that might be a good thing. Networks like IRC have built strong communities around themselves, which the likes of MSN chat have never created. Those communities tend to be self-policing to at least some degree - people watch out for each other and give each other sound advice on their online dealings. Healthiest thing a kid online could do is fall into a community like that rather than a large spam/porn haven like MSN chat.

The Beer Baron · 25-09-2003 2:03pm

they're closing the chat rooms, not the instant messenger

I am aware of that Tman.
I was, in fact, referring to Yahoo's crashtastic chatrooms, and those bandwidth-sapping java games for that matter.

I hate Yahoo IM too, of course, as there is no way (that I know of) of settting global settings for everyone who uses it. It, and to a lesser extent AIM, have given us hassle from day one with its default start when windows starts, auto-login etc, etc.
As for MSN messenger, I actually think it's the best of the 3.

I would estimate that a good 50%-60% of the time when our machines freeze it's because of Yahoo chat. As the hotsexychatmonkey4eva LOL-posse come up at least once a day to annoy us because they've got 2 dozen chatrooms open.
YIM and the chatrooms are integrated anyways, AFAIK.
Whereas MSN Messenger and MSN chat are not.

Nobody uses MSN chat in here, Yahoo is the main chatroom, so I seriously doubt it's gonna effect us dramatically.
The only thing that'd worry us is if Yahoo decided to follow suit. It's worrying for us from a customer/€€€'s POV. From a machine POV it's a godsend. It's a case of, which do we value more, our customers or our web-weary equipment. (no contest)

Also, according to an article I read this morning on the Reg, it seems to be only the start of M$'s new MSN strategy. First of all they're gradually weaseling their way towards making users pay for everything. I'm a hotmail user atm and I'm getting itchy feet as the spam goes up and the storage goes down. And then there's the fact that M$ are now going to charge 3rd party companies access to the MSN networks- i.e. potentially bad news for us trillian users

As for their claims to be protecting children? Useful PR on their behalf. A nice, smiley-happy-company way of saying this thing is costing us too much and we're gonna bail out ahead of the bandwagon of portentious lawsuits.

Stark · 01-10-2003 4:42pm

Microsoft's decision to shut down the chatrooms will have no effect whatsoever only to protect Microsoft itself from any future lawsuits.

Chatrooms are scary places these days, walk into any pre-teen chatroom, and you will find it packed full of little "13 year olds" asking their pre-school friends what they did in school today and by the way how do you like to be ****ed?

It's not something that's easily regulated. There are lots of independant chatrooms out there, and even if we shut them all down there's still the problem of email and even worse instant messaging (at least email can be tracked).

I think children should be educated to be netwise. As in parents should sit down with their kids and tell them, "when you're in the chatroom if anyone starts asking you awkward questions or uses dirty words, you call mammy or daddy." or something to that effect. Cue the parents being harrassed every 5 seconds. "Mommy, cindy13 said it again!".

MarcusGarvey · 01-10-2003 5:05pm

In refernce to k/oriordans comments. This should be integrated into the primary school curriculum now.

MSN UK to axe chat 'To protect users'

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