[IP] Yahoo CLoses Chat Rooms
Begin forwarded message:
From: Randall <rvh40@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: June 23, 2005 8:36:43 PM EDT
To: Dave <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Yahoo CLoses Chat Rooms
Yahoo Closes Chat Rooms Over Sex Content
Yahoo Closes Chat Rooms After Report Reveals Some Used to Promote Sex
With Minors
By GREG SANDOVAL
The Associated Press
Jun. 23, 2005 - Reacting to angry protests from several of its top
sponsors, Yahoo Inc. has pulled the plug on perhaps hundreds of chat
rooms operating on its site after a media report revealed that some of
the rooms were used to promote sex with minors.
Companies such as PepsiCo Inc., State Farm Insurance and Georgia-Pacific
Corp. stopped advertising on Yahoo after they were informed that adults
were attempting to lure children into sexual encounters within some of
Yahoo's user-created chat rooms, according to a report by KPRC-TV in
Houston.
KPRC reported that in some cases, men were using Web cameras to send
lewd pictures to minors in chat rooms with such titles as "Younger Girls
4 Older Guys" and "Girls 13 And Under for Older Guys."
Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako, who declined to say when the service will
return or why all the user-created sites were closed, said the Internet
portal shuttered the service for improvements and to ensure "compliance
with our terms of service."
Yahoo requires users to agree not to "harm minors in any way" or make
available any content that is "unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive,
harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, ... or
otherwise objectionable."
While Yahoo may be cracking down on violators of its terms, others, who
presumably were adhering to the terms, have been barred from their chat
rooms as well.
Sunnyvale-based Yahoo hosts chat rooms that the company created and
those founded by users. Yahoo-created chat rooms remain operational.
How long the chat rooms that allegedly promoted sex with minors have
operated is unclear. Yahoo does not monitor the content in the chat
rooms, but will close a room if it receives complaints, Osako said.
"We encourage users to notify us when they believe content is in
violation of our terms of service," Osako said.
--
My aim is to agitate and disturb people. I'm not selling bread, I'm
selling yeast. -Miguel de Unamuno, writer and philosopher (1864-1936)
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