Chat Room Safety

Chat rooms enable people to have group conversations online. While some chat rooms have pre-determined topics, others are free flowing. But even targeted discussions can sometimes wander in unpredictable directions. When you type something in a chat room, it is seen immediately by everyone in the room as soon as you press Enter. Though some chat rooms restrict entry, most are open to anyone, and there is usually no way to know the real identity of fellow chatters.

While chat rooms can be interesting places for conversation or even learning, they are also fraught with risk. Personal information typed in a chat conversation can be seen and used by anyone in the room or copied and sent to others. Also, chat rooms can are used by predators to find potentially vulnerable children. Many chat rooms have an option to go into a "private" area for one-on-one conversation. Although that can be a good way for two adults or children who are already friends to converse in private, it can be dangerous as well, especially for children, because such private "chats" can be used by predators to groom a child over time, exposing the child to a potentially dangerous online or even face-to-face relationship.

One way to reduce - though not eliminate -- chat room risk is to stick with a service that is only open to paid subscribers. By requiring members to enter a valid credit or debit card, these services make it more difficult (though not impossible) for people to abuse the system and other users. While users may be anonymous to one another, their actual identity - in most cases, is known by the company that operates the service. That enables system administrators or law enforcement to track down people who break the service's rules or who break the law. This can act as a deterrent for some would-be criminals and can help police solve crimes but it doesn't necessarily prevent abuse.

Most of MSN chat rooms, for example, require members to subscribe to one of the company's paid services. The same is true for AOL members who use the company's proprietary software and service. AOL's children's chat rooms are monitored by employees. Parents can use AOL's Parental Controls (keyword parental controls) to block some or all chat rooms, including member-created chat rooms, and AOL staff have tools to track down people who violate its rules or who break the law.

Even with paid services, there is always the possibility that someone can join with a false identity using a fraudulently obtained credit card or debit card, so there are no guarantees. Even people whose identity can be traced have been known to engage in abusive or dangerous and illegal activities.

In addition to its paid service, AOL also offers chat through its free AOL Instant Message (AIM) service. Because it's free, it is possible for users to hide or fake their identities, which makes abuse more likely. Yahoo chat is also free and open to anyone, making it harder for that company to be sure of the actual identity of its users.

Yahoo has several tools to help users protect themselves from potentially abusive "chatters." These includes the ability to maintain an "ignore list" to filter out annoying or potentially dangerous people. You can also filter out inappropriate language.

Before allowing your children to use any chat service, do a little homework. Check to see if the operator of that service lists a street address and phone number. Read their terms of service, privacy policy and other safety-related materials and don't allow your child to use the service unless you are confident that it is responsible. Even then, you should avoid having your children participate unless the service offers moderated chat, supervised by responsible trustworthy adults, and you should always talk with your children about chat room safety.

Regardless of what type of chat service you or your children use, there are some things you can do to maximize safety. For one thing, choose a gender- and age-neutral screen name or username that doesn't reveal anything about your child's identity. Some services allow users to create a profile that reveals information about them. If your service offers profiles it's best to leave them blank or, at the very least, to avoid any information that could possibly identify your child's age or gender or any other personal information about the child or the family. Children should be further advised to never give out any personal information about themselves, their family or their friends and to never go into a private room with anyone they meet online. Of course, any face-to-face meetings with online "friends" should be off limits as well.

If a child experiences anything in a chat room that makes him or her feel uncomfortable, he or she should get out of the room immediately. It's not your child's fault if someone is rude, obnoxious or abusive. Services that operate chat rooms generally have an "abuse" link or other area to report problems. If you find anything in a chat room that is disturbing or inappropriate, report details to system administrators so that they can take appropriate action. If you suspect illegal activity that involves the sexual exploitation of children, report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipLine at www.cybertipline.com.

Parents should monitor their children's usage of chat rooms. Regularly ask your children what rooms they are using and who their online friends are.

MSN, Yahoo and AOL also have instant messaging services that, in some cases, make it possible to engage in a group chat session. MSN's Premium service provides parental controls that allow parents to control who their children can contact via the MSN software. Don't confuse the premium MSN Messenger with the free version or the free Windows Messenger. These services do not have separate parental controls. They do, however, have privacy features that limit who can tell that your child is online and send messages. These settings are not password-protected, which means your child could override them; but they are sufficient for very young children. To configure these, go to the Options menu followed by the Tools menu. Yahoo Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger software, which are also free, have similar privacy controls that can be configured from within the software.

Messaging services also make it possible to engage in video or audio conversations. Parents should exercise extreme caution before allowing their children to engage in a video or audio conversation with anyone other than a known friend or relative.