i don't see that msn closing their chatrooms is going to have any effect whatsoever......they will all just move to other chatrooms and the problem will just be moved..................what's the solution? close all chatroom and then forums??????????

Hence another reason why I think this has very ilttle to do with child protection and more to do with:

1/ making more cash out of paid-for services
2/saving cash currently spent running 'free' services
3/covering themselves so when the inevitable day comes that someone tries to sue a service provider following an appalling paedophile outrage, M$ can hold its corporate hands up and plead, 'not guilty, due dilligence, your honour.'

Sounds like you hit the nail on the head there Towny..

Its most likely just a cover up for the real intent of making it a paid for sevice, like AOL's where you have them nerds what have nothing else to do all day being in charge of the rooms.

To be onest mlud, it matters not to me. My kids will NOT be using them anyway.
Having used them in the past I know how easy it is to fool someone into thinking you are someone else. (and I dont mean I pretended to be a kid!)

Why is this HEADLINE news??

The msblast virus afected alot more number of people than paedophiles ever will, that was never HEADLINE news.

Why is the media promoting microsoft decisions so strongly - if NTL closed down something and mention the word paedophiles would it be headline news?

I agree with towny, MS has done this as a pre-emptive strike against posible lawsuits against them.

What's wrong with that? :shrug:

Will we still be able to use MSN Messenger with the chat rooms closing down?

haha funny you should mention that,

Coming Soon: MSN Messenger 6.1

And here's the bit everyone wants to hear,

I don't see why not; they are from the same company but they are different products.

As for why this is headline news - the word 'paedophile' sells newspapers. Nothing more, nothing less. :rolleyes:

I can see it now:

"in a statement earlier today the chairman of Marks & Spencers said that they will no longer produce or sell raincoats because they could be worn by paedophiles who prey on defenseless children"

Next day business news:

"Sales at marks and spencers has doubled and the sock value has trippled overnight."

If M$ are so concerned that they're doing this to "protect children", why are they closing down *all* the unmoderated groups?

There's thousands of them out there, from gardening to car to poetry discussions etc the majority of which will be of no interest to children (or paedophiles) in the slightest.

The clue comes where M$ mentions that they may re-introduce the service but *only* allowing access to credit card holders, allegedly so they know who is using the service, but what's the betting there might be a small "administrative charge".

In other words, they're losing money on this and they've found a perfect excuse to start charging for it.

1) How? I thought the chat rooms were free?

2) Most corporations do this,

3) I don't know about Microsoft, but where I work, we enforce some rules purely so if there is a problem, we can hold our hands up and say "well, we have procedures in place to prevent this" to the relevant authorities. I think a lot of companies do this.

I have to admit, I don't use the Microsoft Chat rooms, so it doesn't affect me whether they are open or closed. It would be nice for Microsoft to stop dressing up an attempt to save money as a humanitarian gesture though.

Because Microsoft's PR department thought it should be... :D

msblaster wasn't because the PR department thought it shouldn't be.. :D

Was this joke too tasteless or just not funny?

I've decided to get feedback on my wit, in an effort to improve it.

The closing of ALL unmoderated chat rooms will be because if there are any left, then everyone will move into them despite thier original purpose being for gardening or cooking discusisons etc.

See Graham's post above - they will in future run services that are not free.

After realising that it's not as easy as they thought to make money out of the internet. I will never pay for an online service while there's a free alternative, so M$ will not be getting my cash just because they pull the plug on their free service.

I don't think they have been enforcing any rules in many of these chat rooms. Given the massive and expensive job that would be, switching them off is the easier and cheaper option.

hear hear!