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DISCREET INTERNET MONITORING & UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATION |
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What is a Chat Room? |
A Chat room is an online meeting place. Users sign on using an anonymous sign-on name. The upside is that users do not have to reveal their details immediately, the downside is that anyone can pretend to be anyone - enabling a 55 year old man to pose as a 14 year old boy |
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How do people talk? |
By typing messages, either in public - where their words are displayed on screen for all to see - or through a private ("pm") or instant ("im") message that is one-to-one. Users may choose to activate voice messaging and talk in real time through a microphone, or even use a video link where image froma personal webcam is seen on screen |
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What are the themes? |
Everything conceivable. Chat room providers host rooms based on country, region, sexual orientation, profession etc where like minded people gather to talk. There are also "user rooms", which can be created by anyone, carrying titles on any subject - examples include "Young Girls for Older Men", "The Incest Room", "Teens for Married Men", "The Upskirt Room" - there are hundreds of variants |
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What are the themes? |
Few chat rooms use any form of age verification. Yahoo! will not allow access to 'adult rooms' for any person who is registered as under 18, a system easily beaten by the average teenager as it is dependent upon the user's registration details for verification. A 13 year old only has to state that he/she is 18 when registering to be deemed so |
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Are the rooms monitored? |
To a degree. Chat room "monitors" are voluntary. Public awareness is growing, as seen in our News item for the BBC 6 O'Clock news |
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Answers Investigation have experience in handling problems of this nature, and have assisted the BBC in a major news story. It is helpful to us to tackle each case separately. We may approach the issue with a preventative approach - analysing computer usage, where a user has been, who they have contacted - or by using an experienced undercover investigator who may set themselves up as "bait" or ally themselves to the perpetrator |
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