Today MSN announed that they are shutting down their chat servers in Europe, Middle East and most of Asia and Latin America on the 14th October 2003. The move comes as abuse of the chat network continues to rise. MSN are changing the way their operators work worldwide.
As the Child Protection charities welcome the move as a "Big step towards protecting new web users". Most messers will find the news disappointing.
An MSN Spokesperson remarked:
"We have been concerned about the chat rooms for a while and reached a stage where we were no longer prepared to put up with inappropriate communication."
MSN say that there will be no more free and unmoderated chat rooms on any of MSN's network. MSN say that any such chat rooms will be available only in Japan, America and Canada. MSN says these networks will be moderated 24/7 and will be on a credit card subscription only basis. This will help verify the age and identity of users on the chat network. This obviously means more money for MSN.
Child protection is not the only reason for this move says MSN, but also the minority of spammers who have used the chat network to build mailing lists. This contributes to the growing problem that we all so hate. MSN commented that a small minority of chatters have spoilt the chat for people of all ages.
So it seems MSN Chat is no more. Why not check out the
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