“Young people using Windows Live Messenger or MSN Messenger to chat online with friends can now make a report to police with one click if they are concerned their online ‘buddy’ is a sex offender.”
Instantly report an IM user to the “authorities”?? Is it just me or does this have the potential for MASSIVE abuse? I bet the feature is pulled out due to abuse.
–Chris
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August 26th, 2006 at 3:26 am
As easy as it is for us to criticize MS for their decision, you have to at least keep the fact that they have a ton of paid staff, so there has to be at least one competent worker in the group. They have to expect a good amount of abuse- it’s obvious that at absolutely least, 80% of the clicks will be false. Kids screwing around, at the very least, would generate that.
So, although it seems dumb, they have to have -some- idea of the consequences.
August 30th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
This is a very legit idea and i agree with Tony above. Everybody loves causing a stir in the online community so as easy as this will be to report someone, many people will take full advantage and report the most BS conversations. One click is too easy for users, they should have to fill out some sort of incident report every time or else it will be shenanigance all over MSN messenger.
Nate
August 30th, 2006 at 9:13 pm
Don’t get me wrong…I think the idea has merit. The implementation is where this thing will live or die. Microsoft doesn’t exactly have the best track record for getting things in 1.0 release software