Dangers of chatroom shutdown

SEVEN years ago, parents in Britain woke up to the dangers of theinternet when Patrick Green, 33, from Buckinghamshire, was sentencedto jail for having sex with a 13-year-old he met in a Yahoo!chatroom. It was the first case of its kind, but it was soon followedby others. At least 26 cases in the UK where children have been rapedor abducted by paedophiles are linked to chatrooms, according to theNational Children's Home and Charities Coalition for internet Safety.

Yesterday, as the software giant Microsoft announced it was toclose all of its internet chatrooms to protect its customers frompaedophiles, another case was up in court. David Hipperson, 22, fromHitchin, Hertfordshire, admitted to having sex with a 14-year-oldgirl he met in a Microsoft-run part of cyberspace.

The announcement by Microsoft, a move taken after consultationwith police, the Home Office and children's groups, was hailed as"momentous" by children's charities, including NCH and NSPCC, thechildren's protection charity.

However, many are concerned that closing down the virtual meetingplaces will only encourage children to seek out other internet"rooms" in which it may be even more difficult to root out those whoprey on children. Paul Burstow, a Liberal Democrat MP and member ofthe Home Office internet Child Protection Task Force, expressedconcern about Microsoft's announcement.

"Microsoft's decision to pull out of chat services is not going toprotect children from paedophiles," he said. "There is a real riskthat children will switch to chatrooms that are even less safe.

"Rather than baling out, Microsoft should be taking steps toensure that chat is safe. There are many practical steps that can betaken, ranging from moderated chat to filtering."

Professor Ian Angell, an expert in information systems at LondonSchool of Economics, who described the measure as "draconian", alsosaid that it was unlikely to have any effect on the risk ofpaedophiles "grooming" children.

He suggested instead, that Microsoft's decision was financial."They do not want to get sued if a child is linked to contact made intheir chatrooms and they have to demonstrate they are taking theproper care," said Prof Angell. "They will need to monitor chatroomsproperly and that costs money."

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, recently announced newlegislation to make it an offence to use the internet to "groom" achild for sex.

While MSN UK has 12 million users per month, only 1.2 million ofthem use chatrooms. The rooms, said an MSN spokeswoman, were a "nichemarket".

Yesterday, the UK director of MSN, the internet arm of Microsoft,denied that the move was financially motivated.

"We have been making money out of chat," said Gillian Kent. "Thisisn't about making money. Some people may struggle with the fact thatthere are values driving this decision. We are not saying, in onefell swoop we will cure everything. But it is a start."

Ms Kent said that while "millions" of people used cyberspace forits legitimate purpose, a minority of "around one per cent" abuse thesystem.

"It is a small minority but it is serious and dangerous, withpaedophiles or perverts trying to groom young children."

The decision was taken to protect children from any inappropriatecommunication, including spam, a growing problem. About one in fivevisitors to Microsoft chatrooms were "spammers", she said.

Putting a halt to the rooms was not an easy decision to take, shesaid, but came after consultation with the police, the Home Officeand children's charities.

Ms Kent described her own experience in one MSN-moderatedchatroom. It was a Harry Potter chatroom, a favourite of her nephew.She said: "Within 20 seconds, a pornographic spam message flashedacross the screen. The moderator kicked it out but it was back againin five seconds. If my ten-year-old nephew had been in [thechatroom], he would have seen that."

She admitted that the factors which made chatrooms difficult tocontrol - the fact that they are instantaneous and anonymous - alsomade them attractive.

Jim Reynolds, the former head of Scotland Yard's Paedophile Unitand a consultant on child protection, said that other serviceproviders should look at Microsoft's decision.

"It would be naive to think that it has solved all the problems onthe net but it is a very positive step," he said.

He was scathing about critics who said that Microsoft's decisionwould drive paedophiles to other sites. "It's like saying when youput more police on the street, 'Oh, it will solve crime in that area,but the criminals will just move elsewhere'.

"There is no doubt that there has been more prosecutions in thecourts where men have sexually assaulted children they have met inchatrooms. Maybe this is an area where the industry can do somethingpositive."