Microsoft Puts Police Link on Messenger

SirClicksalot writes "Microsoft is working together with the UK Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre to help protect Windows Live Messenger Users. UK users will be able to report suspected sexual predators directly to the police. From the article: 'Microsoft will add a "report abuse" icon to Messenger that will link any users worried about their anonymous internet buddies directly to online police services. Set up earlier this year to provide a single point of contact for the public, law enforcers and the communications industry to report the targeting of children online, CEOP offers advice and information to parents and potential victims of abuse and works with police forces around the world to protect children.'"

Comments

Re:abuse

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Oh yeah, I can't see this being abused at all. Especially by teenagers just screwing around.

Damn straight. We're going to see a story about the dossing of Britains online police services before the dupe of this story appears. (imagine a lol, I'm not a sexual predator worm)

Re:abuse

[niceone]

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out - isn't there are crime called "wasting police time" or something? Can you be prosecuted for clicking that icon without good cause?

And This Works How?

[nbannerman]

I have three seperate accounts I use to log into MSN Messenger's services, via passport.

Only one of them contains any personal information about me. The other two, which are in use most often, are full of completely bogus information.

Hypothetically speaking, where exactly would any online 'police service' get in such a situation? I think this has the potential to be a good idea, but I'm curious to see how many resources are going to be thrown behind this, given how easy it is to enter completely false data from the word go.

Re:abuse

[bwthomas]

In the US we have something called 'filing a false police report' or something similar, and as i recall it actually has some pretty scary consequences associated with it, all things considered. It would stand to reason that the UK has something analogous.

Re:abuse

[jc42]

More importantly, can you be prosecuted when a piece of malware 'clicks' the button?

And its best if you're using wifi, and you've covered yourself (and your IP address) by turning off security. As the recent case showed, with an open access point, you can simply say "It wasn't me; it could have been any neighbor using my wireless" and the prosecution won't have much an argument, because you'll be telling the literal truth.

At least here in the US, almost everyone has just a single IP address for everything past their modem, so everything using your wifi will have the same address, and there's no way at all to prove which of the many computers in the neighborhood may have clicked that button.

If you're on an open wireless AP, you can accuse as many people you want of as many crimes as you want, and nobody can prove it was you.