Yahoo yanks ’sex’ chat rooms
p2pnet.net News:- PepsiCo, State Farm Insurance and Georgia-Pacific were among companies which stopped advertising on Yahoo after learning that adults were, “attempting to lure children into sexual encounters within some of Yahoo’s user-created chat rooms,” says the Associated Press, quoting a KPRC-TV Houston report.
Now, 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”.
KPRC said in some cases, men were using web cams 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,” says the story, adding:
“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’."
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See:-
Associated Press – Yahoo Closes Chat Rooms Over Sex Content, June 23, 2005
June 23rd, 2005 at 4:16 pm
that is sick how could one possibly look at themselves lusting for children? you are suppose to protect them not lure them those molesters should be sent to correctional facilities required to take counsuling and also be registered with that state as sex offenders disgusted
June 23rd, 2005 at 4:35 pm
Hehe I cant wait untill some news station decides to do a story on the rooms on IRC servers… You think Yahoo is bad.. lol
June 23rd, 2005 at 4:44 pm
This is proof of a lack of willingness on part of the “big” portals
to eliminate distasteful material and to properly monitor their services to make sure they are not being used for illegitimate purposes.
Only when under threat of loss of revenue did they decide that it was time to clean it up. In the general Cyberspace we need to set examples and protect our childeren and while granted this is not possible on a complete basis it should be up to these highly visible entities to lead by example. There is no complete fix but there is a need for responsibility from at least some of these websites that advertise to the masses to use their services.
This is not about censorship, this is about taking away havens for sick people and protecting our most valuble resources. The right to free speech does not cover deviance.
While I can’t unfortunately have the arrogance to say what is or is not deviant behavior I can say that in regard to the story presented that type of behavior is definately wrong and should be fought.
It should be a willing battle by people wanting to make a positive influence and not a reluctant reply to the loss of money.
Bryan Mett
June 23rd, 2005 at 4:51 pm
Yahoo,IRC, other web chatrooms have long been known
for these types of activities.Until enough children get
harmed,I guess it will be even longer before the protection
our children need will be in place.
Parents are ALSO to blame!Not all parents mind you,
just parents not BEING parents!!!!!!!!!
IRC is for sure worse in nature than yahoo,I agree.
I am sure people whom have used yahoo chatrooms also
get tired of all the “Cam Bot Girls” and other related spam.
Anymore,the safest place to chat on the internet is thru instant messaging with KNOWN friends and family.
But I applaud Yahoo,Inc for pulling the plug on these predators
and sexually deviant sick perverts .
It will still happen though,in other channels,they need more monitors,hopefully they will recruit volunteers to watch over
the channels specified as “age 17 and younger”.
Just my 2 cents worth….
Surf City,N.C.
June 23rd, 2005 at 5:35 pm
How about MySpace.
June 23rd, 2005 at 7:11 pm
The crap thing about this whole situation, if yahoo would have listened to their own users instead of sending automatic responses this wouldn’t have happened. I have sent about 20 emails about just ONE GUY in a chat room that went into young mothers rooms and tried to see their children naked on cam. They never booted the guy, and never did anything to stop him from going in there, he kept coming in over and over again on the same name asking the same sick questions and even showed his private parts to a child, talked about having sex with his 11 year old daughter and thinking it was ok. I am glad finally it took them losing their money to see the picture, I sent this story to my local news station awhile back after I signed the petition to stop child porn rooms on yahoo. I am glad it worked, you get what you deserve yahoo.
Crystal from WI
June 23rd, 2005 at 7:24 pm
What is really sad is that this is even newsworthy…
Rather, that it is impressive, unusual and amazing enough for Yahoo to close down such offensive chat rooms.
Shouldn’t it have been an automatic thing for them to do anyway?
Shouldn’t it be something that occurs nearly every day?
With the names of the ones listed if they had even the slightest amount of administrative oversight, just someone scanning their list for blatantly offensive titles or just someone reading the complaint reports, this should have been done long ago and should be done so regularly that it shouldn’t be any more newsworthy than ‘Toy was included in a Kid’s Meal’ or ‘The grass at the park was cut’ or ‘The winter in Norway is cold’…
Just… business as usual.
June 23rd, 2005 at 10:05 pm
I read this, and don’t get me wrong about how disgusting these chat rooms are and how they really give a bad rep to chat rooms in general, but why were these minors in those chat rooms to begin with? No matter how much I don’t like what is being done, if these kids are going into these chat rooms how can you stop such things? I think a part of the problem is the teen chat rooms in general. Go into them and it is nothing but talking about sex. It is hard to stop it when the minors are willing to enter the rooms.
June 24th, 2005 at 3:24 pm
Myspace changed things reecntly so you can no longer search for people under 18.
June 26th, 2005 at 7:11 am
well yahoo would not have pulled them if they still had money backing them in that cause they have been on there now for a long time yahoo should have shut them down years ago but didn’t.make’s you wonder what they do there i can see why there was so much booting going on in yahoo. and don’t think that yahoo is the only chat out there that had room’s like that cause alot more chat’s do to
June 26th, 2005 at 7:17 am
but look at the 99 and older yahoo need to clean up i guess if they had people working there thing’s might changes
June 26th, 2005 at 7:26 am
i know what you are saying i think yahoo was wrong i am a user of yahoo chat all the time to people i know but when you are in a room and 12 yr old’s come in that is not the place for them. but look at all chatprograms msn icq irc paltalk it goes on there to i think chat has to change make no wonder there were so much booting and account’s lock down
September 10th, 2005 at 6:47 pm
That’s good they snatch it out, has no need to be there, with all the spam and stuff going on, its good they did that. if yahoo had some kind of controler or operator it would be good. but they don’t so I am Sooooooooo glad they snatch those sex chat rooms out of there.
November 16th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Wow what prudes. Most of the “minors” you speak of were adult women role-playing as minors. The point is whatever happens in “cyber chat land” is not real anyway. Sure there are “stalkers” online but then again there are stalkers in real life. Think about it this way. Would you rather your daughter have a long distance “fantasy relationship” with a weirdo or be in a REAL relationship with a weirdo? Would you rather her have “cyber sex” with the weirdo or “real sex” with the weirdo?
9 times out of 10 sex chat rooms are simply fantasy fulfillment to get off in a “safe environment”. You can get raped at a night club but the worst that can happen online is you get “hacked”. Even normal people have the need to fulfill sexual urges and now they cannot even do that online.
All I can say is this is going to turn us into a frustrated and confused society in which we see sex as bad but violence as okay. By the way, minors talk about sex all the time. I know I did as a teenager and I was curious about it. If minors go into “sex rooms” it is actually pretty normal behavior. Who cares if they “experiment” in chat? Is that worst then them “experimenting” irl and possibly getting pregnant?
Think prudes,think!