I guess I can't blame Microsoft for shutting down its Internet Relay Chat (IRC) servers, because the company could have opened itself to liabilities based on the behavior of people using its servers to communicate. According to Geoff Sutton, Microsoft's general manager for Europe: "The straightforward truth of the matter is free unmoderated chat isn't safe." And where there is risk, a company with $49 billion in cash on its books can't afford to be.
Microsoft has had these problems for a long time. In 1997 and 1998, I was interim CEO of a company that policed Microsoft's NetMeeting servers for people who were dropping their pants. We literally had a group of "beat cops" who could boot a user who appeared nude. The curious thing, though, is that by making these beat cops a part of the communities they policed, we had huge support from users who appreciated not only the lowered chance of genitals being wagged about, but also the personalities and character of the people policing the room. We were very open about the role they played, but they also kept conversation going.
Is the threat of pedophiles in IRC real? Yes, but it's hardly the kind of "danger" the press makes it out to be. I also wouldn't let my kids into an IRC chat without sitting with them for a long while, to teach them what they need to do, what to watch out for and how much information about themselves they can share. I've explained to my 10-year-old, who just got his first IP connection in his room (and has had it taken away again for breaking the rules Mom and Dad laid down) that this is like getting a driver's license. He has to learn the rules of the road and he can get on the Net before he drives because there is a lot lower chance that he'll hurt someone else than behind the wheel of a car.
But is the Net a wild west of pedophiles and predators? I don't think so. It's not, as one story put it, "a signal that some of the joyful early days of the Internet have moved on a bit," according to Microsoft's Sutton, who went on to characterize the Net as a place of lost innocence. "Chat was one of those things that was a bit hippyish. It was free and open. But a small minority have changed that for everyone. It's very sad."
A Net that is free of risk is a Net without life. You prepare your kids for life, prepare them for the Net.
Posted by Mitch Ratcliffe at September 24, 2003 01:16 PM | TrackBack