Posted on 06/22/2005 6:54:53 PM PDT by TheOtherOne
Yahoo Closes Chat Rooms After Some Used to Promote Sex With Minors
Published: Jun 22, 2005 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Reacting to angry protests from several of its top sponsors, Yahoo Inc. has pulled the plug on perhaps hundreds of chat rooms operating on its site after a media report revealed that some of the rooms were used to promote sex with minors.
Companies such as PepsiCo Inc., State Farm Insurance and Georgia-Pacific Corp. stopped advertising on Yahoo after they were informed that adults were attempting to lure children into sexual encounters within some of Yahoo's user-created chat rooms, according to a report by KPRC-TV in Houston.
KPRC reported that in some cases, men were using Web cameras to send lewd pictures to minors in chat rooms with such titles as "Younger Girls 4 Older Guys" and "Girls 13 And Under for Older Guys."
Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako, who declined to say when the service will return or why all the user-created sites were closed, said the Internet portal shuttered the service for improvements and to ensure "compliance with our terms of service."
Yahoo requires users to agree not to "harm minors in any way" or make available any content that is "unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, ... or otherwise objectionable."
While Yahoo may be cracking down on violators of its terms, others, who presumably were adhering to the terms, have been barred from their chat rooms as well.
Sunnyvale-based Yahoo hosts chat rooms that the company created and those founded by users. Yahoo-created chat rooms remain operational.
How long the chat rooms that allegedly promoted sex with minors have operated is unclear. Yahoo does not monitor the content in the chat rooms, but will close a room if it receives complaints, Osako said.
"We encourage users to notify us when they believe content is in violation of our terms of service," Osako said.
AP-ES-06-22-05 2135EDT
Probably just one group of guys talking to another group of guys, lying to each other. LoL
Must start pinging the lists tonight...
Wiped out my favorite WWII and Civil War rooms. Damn pervs.....
They should just close them all down.
The latest craze for teenagers is http://www.myspace.com
It can be a innocent place for kids to blog, or it can be a cesspool, depending on who's on your "friend's list."
We told our teenager he's not allowed on the site...but some friend's kids post there and if their parents only knew what they were posting they'd be horrified.
Quick, someone tell them about AOL.
That's real American komrad.
Yup, or police from one jurisdiction luring police and FBI from somewhere else!
I'm already with State Farm. Now I'll have to start drinking Pepsi!!! Thanks guys! And what is it that Georgia-Pacific does? Can I buy some of whatever it is they sell? Anyone? Again, thanks to all the responsible companies out there. We appreciate you.
People you know are on your my space "friends list." How old is your son?
Does this have any effect on the Yahoo FR site that has been used in the past when FR was down?
Asbestoes.
Actually, primarily wood products, also things likd roofing shingles and siding. They are a defendant in various asbestoes lawsuits.
Yahoo chatrooms are loaded with hookers, cam ho's and sexual predators. It should be shutdown permanently.
and computer programmers and gardening fans and lots of innocent people too!
Sex on Yahoo chat rooms? I'm shocked!
Yahoo chat rooms are a cesspool. Clean them up or shut them down.
I don't believe anyone produces Asbestos at this time. When they were producing it, no one knew it was dangerous. I don't have a crystal ball and don't know which of today's products are not safe, do you? Hindsight is always 20/20.
I liked their baseball card and collectables rooms.
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