Microsoft shuts chat services

By ANGELA GREGORY

User-created chatrooms provided by Microsoft in New Zealand will be shut down from next month as part of a worldwide effort to stop child solicitation and other abuses.

Microsoft yesterday said it would end internet chat services in 28 countries, including most in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

The move will have limited effect in New Zealand where internet service provider XtraMSN's 11 online chatrooms are moderated from Australia by companion site NineMSN.

But user-created chatrooms provided through XtraMSN will be stopped from October 14.

XtraMSN spokeswoman Anna Kermode said the official chatrooms - blush, chatfans, nightclub, lounge, maleroom, grrlroom, triviacafe, espressobar, 20+, 30+ and 40+ - would continue to operate as normal.

Miss Kermode said the changes were also aimed at reducing spamming and reflecting the "increasingly popular" option of MSN messenger.

The instant messenger gave users greater control over their communications and could block other users.

Miss Kermode said New Zealanders would still be able to access or create their own chatrooms through other providers, but XtraMSN was the biggest chatroom provider in the local market.

In the United States moderated and unmoderated chatrooms would be moved behind a subscription wall, requiring a credit card number.

The alleged mastermind behind the September 11 hijackings, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, had reportedly told US authorities that he used internet chat software to communicate with the hijackers.

In Canada and Japan only unmoderated chatrooms would require subscriptions.

All chat services in Britain, used by 1.2 million people each month, would shut down.

Gillian Kent, director of MSN UK, said the move was necessary as online chat services were being misused.

In May a Cambridge man, Michael Wheeler, 36, was jailed for three years after using a MSN chatroom to befriend a 12-year-old girl and have sex with her.

MSN rivals, including AOL, Yahoo and British internet service provider Freeserve, said the Microsoft move would not make them rethink their chat policies.

"Chat is one of the most popular tools on the internet and it's not going to go away," a spokeswoman for Freeserve said.

New Zealand Internet Safety Group spokesman Richard Shera said any moves towards stopping the use of chatrooms by paedophiles was welcome. But he did not think Microsoft's actions would make a significant difference.

"The percentage who used them for criminal purposes would be very, very minor ... you have to wonder whether they are using a sledgehammer to crack a nut."

Mr Shera said it was possible a reason for shutting unmonitored sites was that there had been talk of legal action against some servers over illicit chatroom content.

Internal Affairs spokesman Colin Feslier said chatrooms were often where pornography traders made contact, but the actual offending then usually took place via email.

He said the department's officers at times went into chatrooms to look for evidence of people breaking the law.

Parents concerned about their children's use of the internet sometimes approached the department.

High-profile cases

NEW ZEALAND: June 2003

Auckland man Alan Mark Scadden, 26, jailed for six months for having under-age sex with a Nelson teenager.

He admitted having sex with the 14-year-old after he met her through a chatroom.

EUROPE: Aug 2003

A 19-year-old man jailed in Britain for trying to procure a 9-year-old girl for sex using an internet chat line.

Luke Sadowski, who was caught by an undercover police operation after a tip-off from the United States, was sentenced to three years in prison, including 18 months for possession of an imitation gun.

LONDON: July 2003

Police started a hunt for a 12-year-old British schoolgirl who ran off to France with a recently discharged US Marine she met on the internet.

Toby Studabaker, 31, was extradited from Germany to Britain to face abduction charges after he ran away with schoolgirl Shevaun Pennington.