The exposé, by Houston-based TV station KPRC, revealed that listed under the heading of education chat rooms were sites entitled “Younger Girls 4 Older Guys” and “Girls 5 to 13 for Older Men,” in which men were trying to meet with children, or to persuade them to send explicit pictures of themselves.
As a result of the investigation, some Yahoo! advertisers, including big names such as Pepsi and State Farm Insurance, whose ads appeared in the chat rooms, have pulled their ads.
Yahoo!, which has a practice of removing or closing down those chat rooms that it receives complaints about, has now closed all of its user-created chat rooms. Yahoo!-created chat rooms are still operational.
Speaking to Reuters, Yahoo! spokeswoman Mary Osako explained, "We are working on improvements to the service to enhance users' experience and their compliance with our terms of service.”
"Yahoo condemns the use of internet tools for illegal activities," she added.
Yahoo! is already facing legal action in respect of the use of one of its services – a Yahoo! Group – for the distribution of child porn. In May the portal was sued by an unnamed minor and his parents after his picture was circulated on a Yahoo! Group that was used by a child porn ring.
Yahoo! is accused of doing nothing to stop the distribution of the illegal images.
