Yahoo dumps child sex rooms
p2pnet.net News:- Family advocacy groups are praising Yahoo for closing down ‘sex’ chat rooms.
Houston TV station KPRC ‘Local 2 Troubleshooters’ revealed Yahoo was displaying advertising from major corporations in rooms geared only toward sex with children.
“In those rooms, Local 2 posed as a 13-year-old girl and Houston men lined up at the Troubleshooters’ door after arranging sex meetings,” says the station. “Countless men tried to display pornography with children.”
PepsiCo, State Farm Insurance and Georgia-Pacific were among big sponsors who pulled their ads, so Yahoo closed them all, “leaving nothing but blank screens where the rooms used to be.”
In the process, however, hundreds of chat rooms which had nothing to do with sex were taken offline and now, “those innocent computer users are wondering how they will fill the massive void on the Internet,” says the story, which also points out that, “Yahoo’s move came after a lawsuit was filed against the internet portal last month on behalf of a 12-year-old molestation victim and following a long campaign by watchdog groups to persuade Yahoo and other large internet portals to purge their sites of child porn”.
Parent and child protection groups are praising Yahoo for the move but it appears to have been inspired more by fears for its bottom line than concern for the well-being of some of its for younger users.
“After years of trying to persuade Sunnyvale-based Yahoo to go after child pornographers operating within the chat rooms, critics suspect the threat of a costly civil suit and the potential loss of advertising dollars likely prompted Yahoo to act,” says KPRC, adding:
“Patrick Truman, a senior legal counsel for the conservative Christian group, Family Research Council and a former federal prosecutor, believes Yahoo has the means to police its site more effectively than it does. The company acknowledges that it does not monitor its chat rooms.”
Truman is quoted as saying, “I’m glad a suit has finally been brought because it will give someone access to the way Yahoo operates. Records can now be subpoenaed that will show the kind of knowledge Yahoo has about the trade of child pornography in its chat rooms.”
In 2002, an FBI investigation revealed that child pornography was being distributed in a Yahoo chat room called Candyman. The chat room operated for two months before being shut down, adds KPRC.
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
‘sex’ chat rooms – Yahoo yanks ’sex’ chat rooms, p2pnet, June 23, 2005
KPRC – Yahoo Chat Room Crackdown Affects Non-Sex Rooms, June 23, 2005
June 24th, 2005 at 2:08 pm
’bout time………………..thanks to Yahoo for doing the right thing.
June 24th, 2005 at 2:10 pm
wish we’d just put a bullet in these sex offenders heads and end the cycle of abuse. that said, the liberal left wants to “cure” these people vs resolving the issue.
June 24th, 2005 at 2:30 pm
…but I simply can’t defend Yahoo after they admit they do nothing to monitor these chat rooms for inappropriate child-related sex discussions.
After all, they can filter almost all of the spam to my yahoo email so why can’t they find a method to block innapropriate child related sex references? They may not filter them all but they should at least try.
June 24th, 2005 at 2:36 pm
Rather than use sex offenders and their Internet traffick as an excuse to usurp even more of our rights, why not just kill the child rapists and molesters when they are convicted. That will speak louder than anything. Also, corporations should quit posing children in sexually suggestive ways in order to market their products. Children are people not merchandise tools. The corporations should stop treating them as such (merchandise).
June 24th, 2005 at 2:36 pm
“the Liberal Left”, eh? Hey, Reader’s Write: Turn off the talk radio and think for yourself. Partisan labels serve only to divide. Like war, they don’t show who’s right–only who’s left after the senseless violence.
And, sure, you can back up your argument with isolated examples, but don’t try to pretend that you’re lumping a large group of people in with a few distorted cases.
Putting individuals into categories, good or bad, is no better than saying that all Arabs are insurgents, or–remember this?–all Japanese residing in the United States are supporting the enemy during a war.
Maybe you’d like to see internment camps for ethnics. Haven’t you heard our own troops saying that it’s difficult to tell the good guys from the bad guys in Iraq?
Think the next time before you make generalizations. Hyperbole is a barrier to real communication (look up the word). If you think that you win when you hurl a zinger, think again.
June 24th, 2005 at 2:39 pm
June 24th, 2005 at 2:39 pm
Why not just kill the children? Won’t that prevent molestation?
June 24th, 2005 at 2:40 pm
you “simply can’t defend Yahoo after they admit they *do* nothing” about chat rooms??
They *did* do something. They shut it down. Think it over–there’s not enough time, money, or personal time to monitor anything that’s highly popular.
Give it up. It’s over. No more chat rooms for anyone on Yahoo. Too many people abused the privilege, and they pulled the plug.
Based on your other posts, my guess is if they *did* monitor chat rooms electronically, you’d complain that they were invading your privacy. You’re probably afraid of Gmail.
Get a life. Complaining without offering a constructive solution gets old quickly. I don’t think I’ll be reading any more from you.
Personally, I think you picked a bad day to stop sniffing glue.
June 24th, 2005 at 2:45 pm
did anyonre Think of dumping YAHOO?
June 24th, 2005 at 2:49 pm
Those who blame liberals are dead wrong.
As a card-carrying liberal I say child-molesters should
be hung by the neck until dead. In public.
Yahoo should have known better and either monitored
or shut this down a long time ago.
June 24th, 2005 at 2:50 pm
“Just kill the child rapists and molesters.” No, thanks. While I find the idea that someone preys on children disgusting and infuriating, I’d still rather have the rule of law. You can keep your vigilantism; I’d rather live in the America I know and love than a country where we simply execute people we don’t like.
June 24th, 2005 at 2:50 pm
The comment about killing the children is a sick and disturbed comment that I won’t even waste time to dignify an answer. The problem is with the openness of the internet and the freedoms that everyone is screaming about. Yes, we all have freedom, our soldiers see to that, but when someone else imposes hurt and destruction on our children and can’t or won’t do anything to stop it, that is when we, as a society, have to speak out. Thanks to yahoo for making a HUGE statement to people out there preying on our children, stealing their innocence and then screaming about their rights to do as they please on the internet. Hooray for you!
June 24th, 2005 at 2:51 pm
Good for Yahoo in taking the first step. Now prossecute the people who ran the chat rooms and those who were on it. Send then to prison where they will know what it is first hand to be molested.
June 24th, 2005 at 2:58 pm
shut up you neo-con.
June 24th, 2005 at 2:59 pm
kill the parents who don’t monitor their childrens’ chat logs.
June 24th, 2005 at 3:14 pm
What took yahoo so long. If one mobs these chat rooms with bad press.. They go away anyway
June 24th, 2005 at 3:18 pm
It is very tragic situation.
June 24th, 2005 at 3:18 pm
Define children.
June 24th, 2005 at 3:19 pm
The bottum line now as always is money. There is sexual exploitation in every room in Yahoo. Its the sexual thrill that brings in the people, the people bring in the advertizers, and the advertizers bring in the cash. Yahoo should have gotten rid of rooms that cater to child pornography or meeting a child for sex but remember these are the same people who allow the “hobots” to flash their sex ads all through the rooms. I have heard they even sell them a special membership so they can enter the rooms at any times.
There is no cure for childmolesting perverts. Yahoo can’t monitor every conversation in every room. Phone sex is one of the oldest forms of sexual communication, if you want Yahoo to close all chatrooms because of this doesn’t it make sense to ban all telephone calls that the CIA aren’t listening in on?
June 24th, 2005 at 3:24 pm
Give me a break your never going to stop these online pervs..
how about this you stop children from going in to chat ,how about a age limit say 18?? where are the parents? closing down private rooms that adults would like to discuss things other than sex is like cutting off the head when you have a headace get a clue YAHOO..
June 24th, 2005 at 3:27 pm
Killing the “pervs” doesn’t stop child molestation. It only prevents the child molestor that got caught. Neither does it prevent the molestations that the child molestor already did. Killing is not the answer. The answer is educating our children and talking to them in a straight forward and honest manner so they know the dangers that are out there.
Children get mutilated and killed by cars and by drunk drivers. Do we kill all these wreckless people? No, we tell our children to look both ways before crossing the street. We tell them to not ride a bike on a busy road, and we try to stay off the roads when drunk drivers are most likely to be on the road.
Think about it.
June 24th, 2005 at 3:27 pm
shut up, you neo-con.
you don’t even know who the person is that you’re responding to as they are also anonymous – no names.
idiot.
June 24th, 2005 at 3:30 pm
Killing the “pervs” doesn’t stop child molestation. It only prevents the child molestor that got caught. Neither does it prevent the molestations that the child molestor already did. Killing is not the answer. The answer is educating our children and talking to them in a straight forward and honest manner so they know the dangers that are out there.
Children get mutilated and killed by cars and by drunk drivers. Do we kill all these wreckless people? No, we tell our children to look both ways before crossing the street. We tell them to not ride a bike on a busy road, and we try to stay off the roads when drunk drivers are most likely to be on the road.
Think about it.
June 24th, 2005 at 3:45 pm
Great idea but tell me this. How old am I? See, you can’t answer that. How do you limit access by age? Even the places that try really can’t.
June 24th, 2005 at 3:54 pm
52 your white and a moron
June 24th, 2005 at 4:43 pm
Nice try. You really think dialogue works with somebody spewing about liberals and bullets? Stop fooling yourself.
June 24th, 2005 at 4:45 pm
(you forgot christian zealot)
June 24th, 2005 at 7:10 pm
And what happens when you find that more than half of the users in sex chats are under 18? Prosecute them as well?
I have been into the teen chats, and all anyone talks about is sex in them. With all the sex talk in underage chatrooms on Yahoo! it would be impossible for Yahoo! to moderate. It is either they allow it to happen or shut them down.
June 24th, 2005 at 7:13 pm
You are right, children do need to be taught on how to resist these perverts. However, I am right too. The pervs need to be executed – if they are convicted after a fair trial. I did not mean to imply that i approve vigilanteism.
June 24th, 2005 at 8:41 pm
kill the people who say “kill the pervs”.
June 24th, 2005 at 8:42 pm
“I’d rather live in the America I know and love than a country where we simply execute people we don’t like.”
lol.
America is one of the few countries in the World that does execute people they don’t like. Surely you’ve heard of the death penalty you…
I think I’ll go out and burn a flag while I can. Pity I missed flag day.
June 24th, 2005 at 9:03 pm
To remove the pervs you’ve got to remove the kids.
I don’t really like the idea of where this could go, but here goes. Why don’t they ask for a credit card number when signing up? I know kids can get hold of their parents cards, but this should stop most kids, particularly the young kids. Yahoo could even charge 50c per month so if a kid was using their parents card for access it would be on their bill yet not too expensive for adult users. They could also insist on the phone number associated with the card to further discourage kids who don’t want their parents getting a verification call.
Other than this I don’t see how you can keep some free speech and remove pervs looking for kids.
It seems to me that keeping the rooms may even be a good way of catching the pervs which are likely to gravitate to that sort of environment.
June 25th, 2005 at 5:12 pm
Heh. The “children” in chat rooms are usually older guys or media reporters or cops posing as such. And the “adults” are usually children wanting more respect.
Since people generally give them none.
Point is, nobody knows anybody else’s true age or gender in a chat room, it’s all screwy. Heck, if these media reporters can pose as a child and get away with it, how can they possibly assume that the person they’re speaking to is REALLY who they say they are? I can just see it now:
Problem Solver: Hi, I’m cindy, 7 yrs old [actually 37 married male]
Pervert: Hi, I’m 27 and you’re hot. [actually 7 year old]
So….. who’s soliciting who?