Yahoo Inc.said Wednesday it will bar chat rooms that promote sex between minors and adults and restrict all chat rooms to users 18 and older.
The changes come under an agreement with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning.”This is about protecting kids,” Bruning said.
Spitzer said authorities did not have to resort to litigation. He said Yahoo, “acting as a good corporate citizen, … did the right thing. We asked them to create a filter to stop this kind of thing and they have done so.”
In June, while still in discussions with the attorneys general, Yahoo voluntarily closed its user-created chat rooms following complaints that some had names suggesting they facilitated illegal conduct, including sex between adults and minors.
Among the illicit chat rooms removed were those with labels such as “girls 13 or up for much older men,” “8-12 yo girls for older men,” and “teen girls for older fat men.” Many of these were located within the “Schools and Education” and “Teen” chat categories.
An undercover investigator, posing as a 14-year-old while visiting one of those chat rooms, received 35 personal messages of a sexual nature over a single 25-minute period, the attorneys general said.
Spitzer and Bruning said they launched their investigations earlier this year after receiving tips that children had unfettered access to adult chat rooms.
Other measure announced under the agreement:
_Yahoo! will make it easier to report any threats to child safety, give priority to such complaints and designate specific employees to do so.
Yahoo! will develop educational materials and feature them on the Yahoo! network, promoting the safe use of chat rooms.
Yahoo! will donate $175,000 to the National