The announcement that Microsoft is to close many of its chatrooms because the forums have become havens for sexual predators has been welcomed by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC).
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From October 14th, Microsoft is to shut down its MSN chat services in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and much of Latin America. "The straightforward truth of the matter is free unmoderated chat isn't safe," said Mr Geoff Sutton, European general manager of Microsoft MSN.
In those regions, said Microsoft, the chat was free and unsupervised, giving rise to a nefarious element that bombarded users with "spam" mail, much of which was pornographic and, in some cases, allowing paedophiles to prey on children.
This afternoon the ISPCC described the move as one which is "highly significant" and support the organisation's long held view that "unmonitored chatrooms carry immense child protection risks".
"The ISPCC believe that the decision by Microsoft is sad given the many benefits Internet usage and some chat rooms provide to many people. However the ISPCC has been calling on Internet service providers for a number of years to be more accountable. . . if closing unmonitored chat rooms is the only reasonable strategy available then this needs to be acknowledged."
The group also urged Irish parents to be "extremely vigilant" with regard to their children's use of the Internet.
Microsoft's move has triggered a heated debate among free speech advocates, children's rights groups and Microsoft rivals worldwide about the proper way to police online forums.
In the United States, Canada and Japan, Microsoft will introduce an unsupervised chat service solely for subscribers, who are considered more accountable because their billing details and identities are on record with the company.
"It's a signal that some of the joyful early days of the Internet have moved on a bit. Chat was one of those things that was a bit hippyish. It was free and open. But a small minority have changed that for everyone. It's very sad," Sutton said.
Microsoft said it would begin alerting users to the changes later this week. Users in the affected regions will still be able to chat online but must do so through Microsoft Messenger, the company's instant messaging product.
There is no indication that Irish ISPs intend to follow the Microsoft move and block unrestricted access to their own chat rooms.
