akook.com: Yahoo! ScapeGoat :: Adam Donaghey's Official Website & Blog

Update - June 24, 2005: Yahoo Closes Chat Rooms After TV Sex Report. "Osako said the decision to close the chat rooms, which were online discussion sites that any Yahoo user could create, was made because the company is working on a better version. 'We are working on improvements to enhance the user experience and compliance with our terms of service,' she said."

Update - June 23, 2005: Groups Laud Yahoo For Closing Chat Rooms. "'We were absolutely horrified to find out about this,' [Yahoo! Spokesperson] Keegan said, adding that the company had no knowledge that their ads were appearing in the chat rooms in question."

Update: Yahoo! comments: "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.'"
Yahoo Closes Chat Rooms Over Sex Content...

Update - June 22, 2005: Yahoo! user rooms are no longer available by any means, as far as I can tell. See video here: http://www.whiotv.com/video/4631828/detail.html

Update - June 20, 2005: Yahoo! now has until next month to respond to the $10 Million dollar lawsuit pinned against them for failing to do anything about sexually explict Yahoo! Chat User Rooms, directed towards children. Many Yahoo! users who frequent legitimate user rooms are outraged and are waiting to see what Yahoo! will do. As of yet, Yahoo! has not commented on when and if it will release a more restrictive chat. Please see references at the end of this post for source information.

Originally posted June 18, 2005:

Yahoo! is currently being sued by the family of a "child porn victim" for $10 Million dollars because it, "could have removed the [child sex] sites, but instead chose to make money on them." The story quoted and linked above, broke June 1st and hasn't had much press since then. However, a few days ago, Yahoo! Chat posted: "The ability to publish user-created chat rooms in the public Yahoo! Chat directory is currently unavailable. We are working on improvements to this service to enhance the user experience and compliance with our Terms of Service." Several advertisers have pulled their ads from Yahoo! because the ads were seen in user-created chat rooms on Yahoo's chat servers.

Despite the fact that it's Terms of Service would protect Yahoo! from any liability, Yahoo! may be in serious danger, and as a result, has taken down links to user rooms. Yahoo! Chat users can still access these rooms by using a different client or joining a different chat room and utilizing a "/join" command; however, this might be the first step to larger measures--with a possible conclusion of deleting access to all user rooms. Being a frequenter of a Yahoo! Chat user room since 1999, I am concerned and appalled at the current course of events.

The major problem here is that if Yahoo! is to blame for what users post in their chat rooms (despite the fact that they're clearly not responsible, given Yahoo's ToS), then this will be a catalyst for many more frivolous lawsuits. Why not sue Google for its "child sex" search results? Or, how about other chat/instant messaging lawsuits because "child sex" solicitation is taking place on their messaging platforms? What about those "child sex" phone calls on cellular phone networks? Hell, I'd like to see some wigged out mother sue her local shopping mall for "allowing" child-molesters to talk with their innocent children in Hot Topic. Because our justice system relies on precedent, this sort of slippery-slope is bound to happen.

Am I making light of the issue? Depends on what you think the issue is. I don't think the issue is about saving the children. The issue is about money and money alone. The family who's suing Yahoo! is trying to pass off responsibility to the biggest fish. Yahoo! is simply a company who provides the technology for worldwide communication. If the parents have such a problem with this, why don't they try monitoring their children? And because of this nonsense, big businesses are scared that this sort of thing will reflect on their business--so they pull their advertising contracts. And with little or no revenue, Yahoo! would certainly discontinue the service. This ridiculous scape-goating has got to stop.
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