The American computer company, Microsoft, has announced that it is to shut down most of its Internet chatrooms to prevent paedophiles contacting young people.
Microsoft says the forums have become a haven for peddlers of junk e-mail and sex predators.
From 14 October, the software giant will shut down its MSN chat services in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and much of Latin America.
In the US, Canada and Japan, Microsoft will introduce an unsupervised service solely for subscribers, who are considered more accountable because their billing details and identities are on record with the company.
Geoff Sutton, European General Manager of Microsoft MSN, said the company believed chatrooms had become more sinister.
He said that over the last year or so, they had become increasingly 'seedy', increasingly dangerous and, for parents, increasingly worrying.
Mr Sutton said parents were very unclear about how safe their children are online and that there was a real danger that the future of the Internet could be stalled because of the actions of a small minority.
