Yahoo Closes Chat Rooms To Avoid Child Exploitation

Yahoo has decided to shut down its feature that allowed users to set up their own chat rooms. This move comes after a television news report about chat rooms being used by adults encouraging minors to have sex with them. Users will only be able to participate in chat rooms run by Yahoo itself. They will not be able to set up their own, at least for the time being. They may come back after Yahoo comes up with a plan to better control them. ''We began implementing the changes to Yahoo Chat user rooms in the past week," Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako said. ''We are working on improvements to enhance the user experience in compliance with our terms of service." Some chat rooms that got shut down had names like "Girls 13 and Under for Older Guys" and "Younger Girls for Older Guys", the television report said. Hiawatha Bray with the Boston Globe latest ebusiness news