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Yahoo! Closes User Created Chat Rooms
karvind writes "Chatmag News reports that Yahoo! has disabled all the User-created Chat rooms. According to Yahoo's chat log page:'The ability to publish user-created chat rooms in the public Yahoo! Chat directory is currently unavailable. We are working on improvements to this service to enhance the user experience and compliance with our Terms of Service'. This may be true but Yahoo! is also facing a $10 million lawsuit that accuses it of cashing in on some disturbing chat rooms. The companies are paying huge fees for their ads to appear on Yahoo!. But many are now canceling those ads because of the report."
Well what did they think was going to happen? Opening up chat rooms to the public with I'm assuming very little moderation is just asking for trouble. The article says people asked to become moderators but Yahoo never responded.
I've never used Yahoo chat before. Do they have very many non user created rooms? Sounds like they just destroyed their chat service.
They need to monitor their kid. Especially chatrooms.
Yahoo lets any A-hole create any stupid chatroom.
The only problem with Yahoo is that they don't have one single customer service email address. If they do they sure as hole don't listen NOR DO THEY EVER REPLY WITH A HUMAN REPLY EMAIL. So they could give a fuck if Al-queda had a chat room on there.
To be honest, if children were not in those chat rooms, they would dry up. Besides, who would care if a bunch of middle aged men were all sitting around flashing their "packages" to each other on webcam? Remove the children from the forumla, and the rest of it is moot. Which brings us back to the original question: Where are the parents while the children are watching middle aged men on the computer?
"Does your computer have IP on it?"
And could you please enlighten me as to what is exactly the chance that a 12 year old girl would enter a chatroom named "Girls 13 And Under For Older Guys"?
I tell you, it's nothing more than hysteria at its best.
Real life is overrated.
there were also lots of arabic rooms that the Al Queada may have been hanging out in,
Just reading this comment from you is scary. But perhaps not scary in the way you think... It's scary that your first thought about an arabic chat room is as a possible host for "Al Quaeda". Those darned terrorsts are everywhere now, aren't they? And yet 5 years ago you never even knew they existed.
Oh, but because I suggest that perhaps arabic chat rooms are NOT somewhere for Al-Quaeda to hang out, that must make me a terrorist too...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
My only problem is that some TX congressman already talking about new legislation that is needed. Why? It seems the current system worked:
1. disturbing (but not yet proven illegal actually) practice exposed by media,
2. business reacted by pulling support,
3. Yahoo shut down service.
All seems to be ok. Please someone remind that congressman that there are real problems in his state which need immediate attention (like half of the children are without health insurance*) and work on something USEFUL.
Matyas
P.S. * Are not most of his constituents pro-life, actually? I thought that means that all life (all children) should be entitled to the protection of their health/life on their own right (against illness and death) even if their parents cannot or do not want to get health insurance for them.
Actually if Al Quaeda hung out in these rooms, we should keep them open by all means. Haven't you heard they only talk in person and don't even use cell phones? We got satellites aimed at listening to these people, if they only would speak up. I mean what's better than having them type up their shit in a chat room, and then just run in through some translation program? Free intelligence anyone, without wasting arabic-speaking-undercover-precious-time?
If you're always with them why do you need yahoo to get rid of the chatrooms?
I am trolling
Yahoo has chat rooms associated with their yahoo groups - these are still active. They don't display ads on the way in. Group use ads when you view threads - every n items you read, you get to view (ignore) an ad.
I didn't realize that yahoo also had these ad-hoc chat rooms but that appears to be what's been shut down.
As several other posters have remarked, this kind of adult/child dialog is nothing new. Way back in the day, when CompuServe was master of the on-line universe and a 2400 baud modem was da bomb, I recall watching my 7 yo daughter chatting on-line on night. When I noticed someone say 'would it matter to you if I was a 27 yo male', I pulled the plug on her chat and permanently shut down her access to chat rooms.
While I don't condone pedophilia, PARENTS ARE OBLIGATED TO DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES HOW THEY WANT TO MANAGE THEIR CHILDREN'S ACCESS TO THE INTERNET. Please do NOT ask the government or buinesses to become the ethics police, that's MY job.
I realize it's damn near impossible, and not very healthy, to monitor your kids 24/7, but teaching your kids right and wrong is what we get paid to do - you pop one out and you get the responsibility that comes with the sex.
I agree. A room title is nothing. It is NOT an implication that there's something evil going on. It's an "ad" to get you interested in coming in the room.
The examples in the article could be reworded, and NOT sound evil...
Change "9-17-Year-Olds Wantin' Sex" to "9 normal 17 year olds"
Change "Younger Girls 4 Older Guys" to "Younger Girls 4 Bush or Kerry" (both of whom were older guys)
Change "Girls 13 And Under For Older Guys" to "Girls 13 and under who respect their fathers"
Change "Girls 13 And Up For Much Older Man" to "Girls 13 and up researching prehistoric man"
Change "Girls 8 to 13 Watch Boys (In A Particular Sex Act)" to "8 Girls to 13 Boys with Watches"
It's a friggin ROOM NAME, not an admission of some act! Read it any way you want!
An example to prove my point: (I hate to make this political...) if you saw a chat room called "We Love War", and you "went into" the room to a) observe the conversation, or b) refute nonsense, does that make you a War Lover?
I bet the vast majority of the rooms in question were set up by law enforcement people anyway! Should we be investigating our police forces?