WiredKids
STAR Approved Safe Sites for kids, tweens and teens
A Program of WiredSafety: The World's Largest Internet Safety, Help and Education Organization
Teens Articles



Games
An online safety game

Playing Safe

Play an online safety game for sleuths and problem-solvers, created exclusively for us by Bonus.comŽ


You are here: Home > Teens > Articles > MS Chat

Is the shutting down of Microsoft chat rooms really a big deal?

If people don't use chat rooms that much, how much money does it make for a company? Obviously none, and when the use of chat rooms goes down due to an increased use in instant messenger services such as MSN messenger, AIM and yahoo messenger. So if a company has many failed chat rooms that are becoming unknown and their users even more so, what do they do? Take out the chat rooms.

Obviously there were other reasons as well such as evidence of grooming children on the chat rooms. However, those reasons have other solutions than shutting down the chat rooms entirely, such as warning of apparent grooming whilst entering the chat room, or net operators could have been employed, so is denying people access really the answer? Or are there such a small number of chat room users that it doesn't really matter? And if that's the case, why is there so much media attention given to it?

By removing these chat rooms and giving such little specific reasons for it, are Microsoft giving out a bad impression of the Internet. By the brief reasons they gave, are they leaving too much room for people to jump to their own conclusions about the real reasons? And as for the future plans of Microsoft chat rooms, what are they? Are they going to bring them back and make people pay to go on them in an attempt to stop so much "grooming" occurring? Or are there just not enough people who went on them anyway to really care or bother if they come back? One thing is for sure, this media frenzy is incredibly hyped up, and in many ways unnecessary.