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10/12/2005: "WHY DIDN'T THIS HAPPEN SOONER?"
Child predators weep. Everyone else rejoice. From Reuters...
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc. agreed to shut down Internet chat rooms designed to promote sex between adults and children, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said Wednesday.
The agreement between the online media company and the attorneys general of New York and Nebraska is the first to institute systemwide controls over chat rooms likely to be frequented by child predators, Spitzer said.
"Because of this agreement, Yahoo chat rooms are a safer place today," said Jon Bruning, Nebraska's attorney general, in a statement.
Representatives for Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo (up $0.25 to $34.35, Research) did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The states this year began investigations after learning that children had unfettered access to adult chat rooms.
Spitzer said Yahoo in June removed or barred the posting of 70,000 user-created chat rooms whose names suggested they facilitated illegal conduct, including the promotion of sex between adults and children.
Some rooms carried labels such as "girls 13 & up for much older men," "8-12 yo girls for older men," and "teen girls for older fat men," Spitzer said. Many of these were located in chat categories entitled "Schools and Education" and "Teen."
One investigator, posing as a 14-year-old girl, reported receiving 35 personal messages of a sexual nature over the course of 25 minutes. The senders of those messages appeared to be adult chat room participants, Spitzer said.
Yahoo agreed to pre-screen user-created chat room names, reject names encouraging sexual activity between adults and children, and within 24 hours purge chat rooms found to encourage such activity. It also agreed to develop education materials promoting the safe use of chat rooms.
The company will donate $175,000 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's New York affiliates.
