The Independent: Court case highlights risks of Microsoft chatrooms
A MAN aged 22 pleaded guilty in court yesterday to gross indecency with a 14-year-old girl he met in a Microsoft chatroom, only hours after the internet provider announced that it was shutting its online forums.David Hipperson, from Hitchin in Hertfordshire, told magistrates in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, that the girl claimed she was 16. They met twice for sex, but he was arrested during their third encounter after the girl's parents became suspicious. The case was adjourned...
The Independent: Chatroom rivals attack Microsoft closure move
A MAN aged 22 pleaded guilty in court yesterday to gross indecency with a 14-year-old girl he met in a Microsoft chatroom, only hours after the internet provider announced that it was shutting its online forums.David Hipperson, from Hitchin in Hertfordshire, told magistrates in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, that the girl claimed she was 16. They met twice for sex, but he was arrested during their third encounter after the girl's parents became suspicious. The case was adjourned...
Belfast Telegraph: Microsoft closes chatrooms to curb paedophile threat
The software giant Microsoft declared war on internet paedophiles last night by announcing the closure of its thousands of UK-based chatrooms used by millions of people.It will also restrict access to chatroom systems around the world, allowing only identifiable, adults living in the same country to use them. The decision is a significant precedent, the first time one of the biggest internet service providers has cut off an element of the World Wide Web in reaction to concerns over...
South China Morning Post:
Detention prompts fear of Web crackdown Net surfers are now reluctant to post chatroom messages
The disappearance of university student Liu Di has sparked fears among Internet surfers that the authorities might step up the crackdown on online expression by branding outspoken chatrooms "illegal organisations."Liu Di, 22, a prolific poster on Internet chatrooms under the pen name "stainless-steel rat", was taken away by police from the campus of Beijing Normal University on November 7. Her family was told by a university official that she...
Evening Times: Net closing on chatroom fiends who target kids;NEWS SPECIAL: Mi crosoft move to shut out internet paedophiles
INTERNET giant Microsoft today announced plans to close chatrooms in Britain and in 34 countries across the globe.The move, affecting 1.2m users in the UK, follows a spate of court cases involving paedophiles who have used the services to 'groom' their next child victims. Internet chatrooms offer what for most is an innocent opportunity to make friends with people hundreds or thousands of miles away.But for those with sinister motives, the faceless environment...