Chat Room Safety

Chat rooms enable people to have group conversations online. Some chat rooms have predetermined topics; others are free flowing. When you type something in a chat room, it is seen immediately by everyone in the room as soon as you press Enter.

Chat room risks

While chat rooms can be interesting places for conversation and learning, they also pose some risks. If you or members of your family participate in chat rooms, it is a good idea to keep in mind:

• Some chat rooms restrict entry, but most are open to anyone. There is usually no way to know the real identity of fellow chatters.
• Personal information typed in a chat conversation can be seen and used by anyone in the room, or copied and sent to others.
• Chat rooms can be used by predators to find potentially vulnerable children or adults.
• Many chat rooms have an option to go into a "private" area for one-on-one conversation. Although this can be a good way for two adults or children who are already friends to converse, it can be dangerous to chat with unknown users in a private area, especially for kids. Predators can use private chats to draw children into a potentially dangerous online or even face-to-face relationship.

Making chat rooms safer

One way to reduce chat room risk is to use services that are open only to paid subscribers. By requiring members to enter a valid credit or debit card number, services make it more difficult for people to abuse the system and other users. Mandatory identification can make it easier for system administrators and law enforcement officials to track people who break the rules, and it can help police solve crimes.

It is important to remember that, while mandatory identification can deter some would-be criminals, it doesn't necessarily prevent abuse. Even paid services are at risk from people who use a false identity or a fraudulently obtained credit or debit card.

Examples of how chat room services handle user identities:

• Most MSN chat rooms 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. Children's chat rooms on AOL are monitored by employees, and parents can use AOL's Parental Controls (keyword parental controls) to block some or all chat rooms, including member-created chat rooms. AOL has tools to track people who violate its rules or break the law.
• In addition to its paid service, AOL also offers chat through its free AOL Instant Message (AIM) service. Because the service is free, AIM users can hide or fake their identities.
• Yahoo chat is free to anyone. This makes it harder for Yahoo to be sure of users' identities, although Yahoo offers several tools to help users protect themselves. These tools include the ability to maintain an "ignore list" to filter out annoying or potentially dangerous people. Yahoo users can also filter out inappropriate language.

What to look for in a chat service

Before allowing your children to use any chat service, do a little homework.

• Check to see if the operator of the service lists a street address and phone number.
• Read the company's terms of service, privacy policy, and other safety-related materials. Don't allow your child to use a chat service unless you are confident the service is responsible.
• Allow your children to participate only if the chat service offers moderated chat, supervised by responsible and trustworthy adults.
• Talk with your children about chat room safety, and listen to what they have to say.

Practice smart chat room behavior

Regardless of the chat service you or your children use, there are some things you and your child can do to help enhance chat room safety.

• Choose a gender- and age-neutral screen name or username that doesn't reveal anything about your child's identity.
• Don't give out personal information. Some chat services allow users to create profiles that include personal information. If your service offers profiles, leave them blank, or avoid including information that could identify your child's age and gender, or other personal information about your child or your family.
• Caution your children to never go into a private chat room with anyone they meet online. Tell your kids that any face-to-face meetings with online friends should be off limits as well.
• If your children experience anything in a chat room that makes them feel uncomfortable, they should leave the room immediately and talk with you about the experience.
• If you find anything in a chat room that is disturbing or inappropriate, report details to the system administrators so they can take appropriate action. Services that operate chat rooms usually have a link or e-mail address to report abuse.
• 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.
• Monitor your children's chat room use, and talk to them regularly about what they are doing. Ask about the chat rooms they use and the friends they meet online.

Pay attention to instant messaging services

MSN, Yahoo, and AOL all have instant messaging services that make it possible to engage in a group chat session.

• MSN's Premium service provides parental controls that allow you to control who your children can contact using MSN messenger. However, MSN Premium is not the same as the free version of MSN Messenger or Windows Live Messenger. The free services do not have separate parental controls. They do have privacy features that limit who can see that your children are online and send them messages. These privacy settings are not password-protected, which means your children can change the settings, but they are sufficient for very young children. To configure the privacy settings, click the Toolsstrong> menu and choose Options.
• Yahoo Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger software, which are also free, have similar privacy controls that you can configure within the messenger software.

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