The UK's Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre announced on Monday the 21st of August that it has struck a deal with Microsoft to have a 'report abuse' button on its popular instant messaging service. Users of MSN Messenger, now branded as Windows Live Messenger, will be able to press the button to report suspected sexual predators and the report will immediately be sent to police.
The specially trained police and intelligence officers who receive the reports will then inform the user how to capture information and how to seize online discussions. Equipped with this information they will then proactively track down the perpetrator who's been posing as the child's internet buddy.
CEOP was formed April 2006 and tasked to work both nationally and internationally to bring online child sex offenders to the UK courts. It provides a single point of contact for the public, law enforcers, and the communications industry to report the targeting of children online.
Jim Gamble, the chief executive of CEOP, stated: "This is a landmark step by Microsoft. They could have got £20,000 in ad revenue for the space they have given up and we hope others will follow them. This is part of our 'safer by design' strategy which is designed to make predators have a lack of confidence because of what is going on behind the scenes while they are online. By working with MSN in this way we are offering users access to a global police response. If you make a report as a UK citizen then we at CEOP will investigate. If you make a report as a user from other countries then our counterparts in the US, Australia, Canada or Interpol will take the matter further. That is a truly global response to a worldwide issue".
Microsoft's is the largest instant messenger service in the UK, with over 11 million registered users, compared with rival AOL's 3.5 million and Yahoo!'s 1.7 million messenger users. This effort to protect its younger users from potential abusers should help sway the debate about online safety which has heated up recently, with social networking sites such as MySpace becoming enormously popular with children and teenagers.
Carrie Bogner, Senior Director, Citizenship, of Windows Live said "We take the safety and security of young people online very seriously. People can already control who they do and don't allow onto their Messenger buddy list. The new CEOP tab launched today is another safety feature that will make Windows Live and MSN Messenger safer still".
With last month's announcement that Yahoo! and Microsoft have begun limited public beta testing of interoperability between their instant messaging (IM) services it makes CEOP's announcement all the more timely as this interoperability, the first of its kind between global consumer IM providers, will form the world's largest IM community with around 350 million accounts.
Brad Garlinghouse, Senior Vice President of Communications, Community and Front Doors, Yahoo!, stated: "Interoperability between IM services has consistently topped our users' wish lists, and through the collaborative efforts between Yahoo! and Microsoft we are delighted to provide our combined global users with the ultimate IM experience. A new era for staying connected with friends and family is here, and the bridge between Yahoo!'s and Microsoft's IM communities is bringing people around the world closer together."
It's good to know that instances of inappropriate contact of a sexual nature encountered whilst chatting in this ever-expanding virtual environment can be reported at the touch of a button. Let's just hope this sort of reasoned approach here in the UK can prevent us going down the overly simplistic route seen in the "land of the free" - the United States of America, where the House of Representatives recently voted to ban social networking sites in schools and libraries.
