Why did they need to be told?
I just saw this announcement in the Chicago Tribune, via Bloomberg News,
Yahoo Bans Internet Chat Rooms Promoting Sex With Minors Yahoo! Inc. has removed 70,000 user- created Internet chat rooms and will bar chat rooms that promote sex with minors, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said in a statement today.The agreement follows investigations begun earlier this year by Spitzer's office and the office of Nebraska's attorney general, Jon Bruning, the statement said. The investigations were prompted by tips that children had access to sexually explicit adult chat rooms, the statement said.
The first thing that came to my mind when I read this article was "great". The second thing I wondered why this Bay Area-based company needed the New York State Attorney General to push them into doing this. Given how widely reviled are all things involving sex between minors and adults, it is hard to imagine that Yahoo was pleased about these forums. My guess is that they probably already wanted to shut down these sites earlier but wanted cover. That is to say, they wanted this done but didn't want to take the heat for censoring their customers speech and monitoring their online activites. Eliot's motivations are crystal clear- he's got a higher office in his sights and being seen tough on child pornography will undoubtedly help him with family values oriented swing voters.
See also:
Eliot Spitzer smacks Hot 97 with $300k Slapfest fine
Feds Turn Up the Heat on Sex
Erotic Talk in Chatrooms ruled "Grounds for Divorce"
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