Teens and Preteens in the UK who are using MSN Messenger to chat with friends will soon be able to report those they suspect to be sexual predators directly to authorities thanks to Microsoft, who has teamed with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre.
While the intentions of Microsoft may be admirable, several individuals are expressing concern, that this might not have been such a wise move for Microsoft. Hopefully the new feature will not be abused.
Elinor Mills reporter of CNET News.com says, “Users of Windows Live Messenger or MSN Messenger in the United Kingdom can click a new button in the chat application to contact police with reports of suspicious behavior and instances of inappropriate sexual conduct online.”
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, “one out of every five children ages 10 to 17 receives sexual solicitations online.”
Source: CNET News.com
Full Article: Microsoft offers one-click police report via IM
Technorati Tags: MSN Messenger, Microsoft, MSN, Missing and Exploited Children
Rose DesRochersRose wears many hats. She's a wife, mother, respite worker, proud shih-tzu owner, blogger, published poet, freelance writer, as well as the owner and administrator of Today's Writing Community and Blogger Talk Blog Community. Feel free to contact her with any questions you may have.Rose DesRochers has 1117 post(s) at Rose DesRochers – World Outside My Window
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2 responses so far ↓
Wrote: Aug 23, 2006 at 3:19 pm
I really hope this works and some of the scum gets jailed. But the possibilties for abusing this feature are quite scary. Of course I don’t know the details on how this will work, but you know, I have a feeling this won’t have been thought out to well. I mean will they investigate everyone that this is used on or just people who have been flagged multiple times? If they investigate everyone there is going to be a lot of wasted time as idiots click on it as a joke. Were as if they only investigate after a few flags the really intelligent scum can get around it easily enough as it’s really not hard to create a new account everytime they move on to a new kid
Wrote: Sep 2, 2006 at 6:44 pm
Here’s what Microsoft UK writes about it – looks like they hand over customer data to the police.
The goal is laudable, but the methods…?