- Be careful who you trust online and remember that online friends are really strangers. People online, no matter how long you have been talking to them or how friendly they are, may not be who they say they are.
- Meeting someone you have only been in touch with online can be dangerous. If you feel that you ‘have to’ meet, then for your own safety you must tell your parent or carer and take them with you – at least on the first visit – and meet in a public place in daytime.
- Stay in charge in chat. Keep your personal information secret when chatting online (name, address, telephone number, mobile number, private email address, picture), even if people ask for this. Although It can be tempting to reveal more than you normally would in online friendships, giving out personal information can make you vulnerable.
- Check your profile and make sure it doesnt include any personal information (name, address, telephone number, mobile number, private email address, picture).
- Get away from an unpleasant situation in a chatroom by logging out (this just takes one click) or by changing your screen name.
- Think before you answer private messages. It can be harder to end a conversation in a private chat than in a public chat. A private chat may end up being more personal than you like.
- Use a nickname, not your real name, and a nickname that is not going to attract the wrong type of attention.
- Look out for your friends and do something if you think that they are at risk.
- Tell your parent or carer if someone or something makes you feel uncomfortable or worried.
- Learn how to keep/save a copy of the conversation in chat this may be useful if you want to report something.
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<< < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> Shutting of MSN chat rooms may open up IMBy deciding to shutter free chat rooms, Microsoft has highlighted global problems with spammers and pornographers. But analysts say there may also be benefits for the software giant, which is trying to shunt customers to paid services across its network.Microsoft said this week that MSN users should switch over to its free MSN Messenger instant messaging service as a replacement for the chat rooms, which are scheduled to close down in 28 countries on Oct. 14. The decision excludes the United States and Canada. Microsoft stands to benefit in several ways from the move, for example, by reducing expenses related to maintaining and policing free Web chat rooms and by raising the prominence of MSN Messenger in the affected regions: Europe, Asia, Africa and parts of Latin America. That in turn could help boost revenue when Microsoft begins to charge for IM, something analysts say is just a matter of time. "Even though MSN Messenger is not a paid service, it's the leading edge of where Microsoft wants to go with paid services," said Rob Helm, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, an independent market researcher. Like rival IM services from America Online and Yahoo, MSN Messenger has attracted millions of people around the world who communicate with other buddies on its network. Although these services are free, they give providers another vehicle for advertising and, more important, keep people using other services in their networks. But the importance of IM for Microsoft goes beyond that. Later this year, Microsoft is expected to launch Live Communications Server (LCS), which it plans to sell to companies that want IM packaged with security and archiving features. Much in the way that e-mail is managed by corporate IT departments, companies will want IM that they can control, Microsoft and other tech giants believe. LCS will initially offer IM, but executives plan on integrating Internet phone calling and videoconferencing into the software as well. Eventually, Microsoft hopes the product will let companies buy one product to manage all their real-time communications. "It makes sense in that Microsoft is forcing people into a product path, whereas (on MSN chat) they're simply on a service path," said Michael Osterman, president of Osterman Research, which follows corporate IM trends. Microsoft expects to allow LCS customers to chat with their MSN Messenger buddies. Thus, the greater MSN Messenger's population, the more useful LCS will be. Still, pushing chat-room users to IM will be an effective step to rid its network of the Web's darker side. MSN Messenger allows people to chat with up to 15 others, offering them a private platform for discussion that is hard for uninvited guests to find. Furthermore, MSN will maintain chat rooms in the United States and Canada, but it said it will only allow subscribers to participate. "The core reasoning behind this was they wanted to make the environment better for their paying customers," said Michael Gartenber, an analyst at Jupiter Research. "If you're paying Microsoft every month for MSN, you don't want to be harassed by spammers and pornographers." MSN chat rooms affected by the change will be shut down Oct. 14. That's a day before the deadline for third-party IM services such as Trillian to strike a licensing agreement with Microsoft to prevent the possibility of their being blocked. Oct. 15 also marks the deadline for people using older Messenger versions to upgrade to 5.0 or higher. "MSN Messenger, our free instant messaging service, provides the most innovative chatting options and enables people to have greater control over the people with whom they communicate," Lisa Gurry, group product manager for MSN, said in an e-mail statement.
The Secret World Of Internet Chat Every day thousands of people across the world pretend to be someone else. They play the macho man, the superhero, the flirt, the brain and the tease. And they do it all from the comfort of their own homes. How do they do this you wonder? Through the power of the Internet chat rooms. People enter the world of internet chat when they are lonely, bored, or just want to get away from their lives for a while. It seems like a decent enough idea right? One would think, except that the moment a person logs into a chat room they become obsessed with sex and hooking up with someone or starting fights. It's all about the "cybering" and the violence. Why is it that most people cant just talk to other people in chat rooms without bringing up sex or violence? And why is it that the two go hand in hand? Has our society really evolved so little that we cant think of anything else to talk about? When you first enter chat, you think about all of the interesting people you could meet and what fun it will be to talk to people all over the world. But soon enough you find out that this is not the norm, these interesting people are the exception. The moment you go into a chat room you will notice that either no one is talking or they appear to be fighting. There doesnt seem to be actual conversation going on in most rooms. So you meekly say Hi hoping that someone will talk back to you and you wont be alone on this world wide web of people. Sometimes someone will say hi back but most of the time the room will be so silent you could hear a pin fall. But a funny thing will happen when say hi in a very quiet room. Without a doubt someone will "pm" you , otherwise known as private message. This is when a little window pops up separate from the chat room and someone starts talking to you. This is where things start to get interesting. From this point on your private conversation with another chatter will take one of a few directions. Without fail the person on the other end will ask you one of the age-old chat questions What do you look like? Do you have a picture or web cam and Age/Sex/Location (ASL.) And from there its usually all-downhill. If someone starts a conversation like this with you, the chances of him or her actually wanting to carry on a decent conversation are very slim. If they wanted to actually talk to you then they would have said something that most chatters dont say anymore Hello. They are so intent and focused on sexing you up that they have forgotten the very basics of conversations, that when you meet someone new you say Hi or Hello or at least something vaguely similar to that. You will soon find out that the reason 90% of chatters ask this question is because they want to get some. Yes they want to talk about sex. Whether they are upfront and immediately ask you to "cyber" or they are subtle and actually have a semi-conversation with you, it will eventually lead to the good old sex question. Are people so lonely that they have to have sex with their computer? Is that what the world is coming to? Whatever happened to actual human beings touching and feeling each other? Has the chat room now replaced the bedroom? I think that in theory chat rooms are a good idea. They allow us to communicate with others who we may never have taken the time to get to know. From people in foreign countries to people just around the corner, the power of a chat room is that it allows us to chat. So why is it that most people cant get beyond their carnal impulses? I think that part of the reason that people are so into cybering is because of the anonymity. For a few minutes you can imagine yourself with the supermodel on the other side of the screen. For a few minutes your life isnt so boring and mundane. For a few minutes somebody wants you. And who in this world doesnt want to feel wanted? Everyone wants to think that someone else needs or wants them even if they know that it isnt real. In the case of chat it is just computer generated. There is a way to actually become wanted though. In order to become wanted one has to stop feeling with their sex drive and start feeling with the heart. I think what most people dont realize is that usually the person they are chatting with would like to get to know them. The chatter on the other end of the computer is not much different from you. They to are searching for people to whom they can feel connected. We, as people, wander through our entire lives searching for others to whom we feel we can make a connection with. Whether it be friendly or romantic everyone yearns to make a connection with another human being, and they yearn to make one that they hope can last. So next time you find yourself in a chat room somewhere in cyberspace just remember its not always about the violence and the sex. There are real people out there, real people hoping to find someone else who is real. Someone with whom they hope they can make a lasting connection.
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