That's a good first step..take away the creep's playgrounds. I hope others follow suit.

EDIT: Doh!! A link would be helpful, yes?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8334047/

Yeah that is a very good step to close all chat rooms to stop underage sex, rape and other illegal actions against minors.

Good Job Yahoo!

Let's see what ELSE we can close down. Maybe newspapers?
How about blocking certain words on the Internet?

Its indeed unfortunate that the repulsive acts of a few individuals, provide justification for the gradual curtailment of freedom of speech for the many, whether voluntarily in the case of Yahoo, or from the legislature.




Regards,
John

Well, I personally agree with banning certain words, and in my experience, minors use chat rooms more than they read newspapers, or anything, for that manner.

Probably a good thing Yahoo did. Doesn't affect me. Never knew it existed, actually.

But what about the people who used the chat rooms who are not minors and not perverts but who have now been denied a medium of communication?

The chat sites created by Yahoo are still open. And for those that used them legitimately, bummer. There are still chat rooms available. And Yahoo is working on a means of monitoring user created chatrooms. (I'd hate to be the lead engineer on that project)



If they provide a means for predators to prey on our children, then yes. Banning certain keywords? It won't happen. Too many people will come to the defense of the Internet. How many people are going to come to the aid of pedos and predators? Freedom of speech has not been touched, only the means for furtherance of criminal activity.

I fully agree with groovicus, because there are still chat rooms open that people can chat on. I think in order to have a user chat room it must have a person that scans all of the words preventing any thing bad from happing like adults trying to have sex with minors. I think that any method that predators use should be shutdown. If there is a chat room used for it shut it down.

Not being a chat user I guess I don't understand the difference between a Yahoo chat room and a user created chatrooms on Yahoo

frankie12 said:

('it' being predatory behaviour towards minors)
You wont hear any argument from me about that! My concern was about removing the whole medium not just the room. It seemed a bit like shutting down the postal service because someone sent hate mail. But apparently I misunderstood.

i must admit that rimmer has a valid point here
I think it's got to the stage where everyone is that frightened, it's easier to close something down than to run it properly.
I use the chat rooms on 'friends reunited' their rooms are for 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's, and 60's so not much use to a pedo.
Chatrooms can be fun, if they are organised properly.
In my opion young people shouldn't be allowed into chatrooms, that would cure the problem.

Excactly.

I feel sad by the fact that what I believe is a very small minority getting a resource closed down.

There is nothing stopping pedo's using mIRC and the like, so where do we stop.

Smoking kills, it is a fact, yet all over the world smoking is still legal. Here in the UK the government wants people to stop smoking but it is still legal.

Motor cars kill thousands yet we are still allowed to use them.

Alcohol kills and destroys families yet we are still allowed to drink.

I think this is just another case of overkill.

My own opinion of pedo's is they should be publicly tortured to the point of death, then receive the best medical care so they can be tortured repeatedly. But alas capital punishment doesn’t serve as a deterrent.

I heard a radio interview, a couple of years ago, with a retired FBI agent who was part of a group who regularly logged on to chat rooms posing as children. They would play along with anyone asking questions and if they were asked to meet up in the real world then they would make all the arrangements. If the other person turned out to be an adult (while claiming to be a minor) then, depending on the evidence, it was either criminal charges or several days of "Please explain".
This seems like a great deterrent, as it neatly turns the tables on the predators making them unsure of who they are talking to and putting them at risk if they try to arrange meetings.
I hope they still run that program.

Indeed they do. I am trying to finagle an internship with a detective that spends his days doing just what you described. There are not enough of them.

ez wit da terminology there tiga! no, its not a case of overkill cuz ~overkill~ disagrees! dont shut down the world keep an eye on ya doggone younguns...ya brought em in dint ya? what, it stopped there? hand em over to yahoo to raise? naw, and i dont think anyone here thinks that either. it just sounds like such a good idea its ez to jump on the bandwagon.

and rimmer, isnt gettin off ez: dry my eyes on being denied a medium of communication...puh-leeeze! seriously some of the names in those rooms make ME blush and thats not easy. Kids LOVE the mystery of that stuff. for a while as a kid i wanted to have sex SSSOOOO bad. Basically cuz my bible thumpin gramma said it was the WORST SIN . Shut that bleep down! if legit folks cant communicate without goin through a chat room named 13 y/o who love to cam, then the decimation of the human race cant come quick enough for me! but thats where it gets tricky. whos to decide what goes, what stays? Now we talkin about censorship and lawsuits for crazy type stuff...if ya gonna go, ya gotta go whole hog...but the PARENTS are the KEY! Keep an eye on the litluns and they WONT GET RAPED

Heres a question for the people who said that young people should not be allowed in chat rooms:

How young is too young? what I am saying is what age should people be banned from chat rooms?

thats where it gets tricky. whos to decide what goes, what stays...or in this case maybe who? see? It starts already and its a legitimate question...as i said, shut em down

Bein a young one though, I've been intimdated by these Pedo's, 21 yr olds saying I can give you the world if you meet me sorta thing, and i mean as the sayin goes young and niave children jus dont understand, but its also seen a "cool" thing to meet people off net and its not just the pedo's children lead them on too... is say about 80% of the people who say they are 15 and 16 are actually 13 and 14. Talking to these old dirty Pedo's who also lien about ages, the kids like the attention, as they wouldn dare to get it that way in the real world. Been there done that, got the T-Shirt,