Yahoo to ban minor-adult sex chat rooms.

buttmunch · October 13th, 2005, 09:33 AM

NEW YORK Oct 12, 2005 — Yahoo Inc. said Wednesday it will bar chat rooms that promote sex between minors and adults and restrict all chat rooms to users 18 and older.

The changes come under an agreement with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning.

"This is about protecting kids," Bruning said.

Spitzer said authorities did not have to resort to litigation. He said Yahoo, "acting as a good corporate citizen, … did the right thing. We asked them to create a filter to stop this kind of thing and they have done so."

In June, while still in discussions with the attorneys general, Yahoo voluntarily closed its user-created chat rooms following complaints that some had names suggesting they facilitated illegal conduct, including sex between adults and minors.

Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako said Wednesday that Yahoo was still determining if and when user-created chats would be restored as it makes improvements "to enhance the user experience and compliance with our terms of service."

If they do get restored, the agreement calls for Yahoo to review the names of such rooms ahead of time and reject any deemed inappropriate. Even if a room's name is innocuous, Yahoo also will bar any whose postings encourage sex acts between adults and minors, purging such chat rooms within 24 hours from when it becomes aware of them.

"These efforts are consistent with and build upon our long-standing commitment to providing a safer and more secure online experience for consumers," Osako said.

The company also is eliminating the teen chat category and limiting usage of all chat rooms to adults, although it was not clear how the company would prevent children from signing up as adults because credit cards aren't required.

Spitzer, a Democrat running for governor next year, said he started the investigation at Bruning's urging.

"The agreement we have today is the first of its kind," Spitzer said. "We think this is an agreement that can be a template for others to use."

--Gee, ya think it's a good idea?

DisruptiveHair · October 13th, 2005, 09:34 AM

Jesus, I'm surprised they didn't ALREADY do this!

buttmunch · October 13th, 2005, 09:39 AM

The NAMBLA lobby was probably standing in thier way.

Tiara · October 13th, 2005, 09:49 AM

Google does my head in with things like this. With my job I often have to search for generic pictures for websites. So I type in the word 'mechanic' and I get a woman barely clothed lying under a car with massive boobs, I've even put safe search on but the odd one still slips through, its really embarrassing when my boss is walking past and he thinks I'm searching for strange porn!

buttmunch · October 13th, 2005, 10:26 AM

I was once searching for the Crystal Palace (football team) website and guess what came up when I googled that?

Tiara · October 13th, 2005, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buttmunch

I was once searching for the Crystal Palace (football team) website and guess what came up when I googled that?

what?

buttmunch · October 13th, 2005, 11:31 AM

The Crystal Palace porn site with unstoppable pop-ups. I had to shut my entire computer down to stop them. It was hilarious, given that I was at work...

blondeviking · October 13th, 2005, 12:03 PM

When I was 14 I was doing a research project about one of the countries in my ethnic background, and I started searching websites for good images to use for my class presentation. Well, I clicked on a link with a super innocuous name, something like, "Untitled" and ALL THIS PORN started popping up! Like 3 pop-ups a second!! And I had honestly never seen porn before at that age and covered my eyes and started screaming for my Dad, who rushed over and shut down the internet explorer, cursing.

A few years later my water polo coach told some of us a story about how his 9-year old daughter Alana was trying out the internet, and decided to go to alana.com....and it was porn :p And she started shaking and crying and wouldn't talk for like two days. He was SO MAD while he was telling this story, I feel bad for any parent who's gotten in a situation like that.

pookiebear · October 13th, 2005, 01:23 PM

Back to the topic of the Yahoo chats.

This is not the right way to solve the problem. All they have done is provide legal loopholes for themselves as well as the sickos out there.

Yahoo: "You must be 18 to enter this chat! ONLY click here to enter if you are 18 or older!"

15-year-old girl: "Oooh...I'm old enough!" *click*

*15-year-old girl runs off with internet pervert*

Yahoo: "Sorry, can't hold us responsible. Our site clearly states that it's for 18 and over only."

Internet Pervert: "How was I to know that she wasn't 18? She was on a chat specifically for 18s and over."

This is nothing but a bunch of political grandstanding and trying to make a company replace lazy parenting.

SammysMom · October 13th, 2005, 01:28 PM

They did a HUGE undercover story here in Houston. They set up these guys and when they came to the "14 yr old's" house they were BUSTED big time. Got it all on camera and they didnt have enough time to hide their faces. It was pretty funny in some cases. Yeah I agree all a 12-13 yr old has to do is click the button saying they are over 18, who is checking their age out?

buttmunch · October 13th, 2005, 02:19 PM

Who the hell lets a young kid or teen troll the internet unattended? Ok, I know lots of people do but what the fuck are they thinking? I know a seven year old who has a computer with internet access in his room and I just sit there and think, WTF are those parents on? My kids, when they use the computer (on the rare occassion I'm off it..hehehe) are supervised and they are not allowed to use the internet without me in the room. they don't have the password to get into the computer, nor will they get it until they are much, much older.

Tiara · October 14th, 2005, 07:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buttmunch

The Crystal Palace porn site with unstoppable pop-ups. I had to shut my entire computer down to stop them. It was hilarious, given that I was at work...

Hehehehe

simplekindoflovely · October 15th, 2005, 06:37 AM

Chat rooms are just retarded. I, too, am surprised it took Yahoo this long. I've been to some of those chatrooms, because a friend of mine was a junkie for awhile and told me some hilarious stories of the stuff that went down in there. I read some of the most inane crap you could ever imagine. It's a total waste of time. That, and if your screenname even resembles that of a female, you get about ten private messages upon entering, all asking some variation of "wanna cyber?".

Bliss · October 15th, 2005, 06:53 AM

^^ LOL. My sister and I went on some game site with chat features and said, "WE'RE LESBIANS!" We got so many responses! It was so stupid, because they were getting all excited over some text that they knew could have just as easily been written by some middle aged man.
Even before that, we got a message out of nowhere asking:
"hey jemjem, u in the mood?"
"No."
Then my sis wrote, "So, what do you think about transvestites?" He (or she, you never know....) stopped messaging!

Quote:

Originally Posted by pookiebear

Back to the topic of the Yahoo chats.

This is not the right way to solve the problem. All they have done is provide legal loopholes for themselves as well as the sickos out there.

Yahoo: "You must be 18 to enter this chat! ONLY click here to enter if you are 18 or older!"

15-year-old girl: "Oooh...I'm old enough!" *click*

*15-year-old girl runs off with internet pervert*

Yahoo: "Sorry, can't hold us responsible. Our site clearly states that it's for 18 and over only."

Internet Pervert: "How was I to know that she wasn't 18? She was on a chat specifically for 18s and over."

This is nothing but a bunch of political grandstanding and trying to make a company replace lazy parenting

Totally agree.

zebracakes · October 18th, 2005, 03:57 PM

This filter thing is just a CYA measure to keep them from being sued. It's not going to stop these pervs.