Hi All,

I wonder if someone can help, I am trying to find out what the law is with regards to public chat rooms and one to one instant messenger type applications. I suppose one could include forums in this topic too.

The worry comes in if the chat rooms are aimed at minors and undesireable adults of a certain nature attempt to enter. Is the law different for one to one messenger applications?
Swearing etc we can block most of so I am not too worried about that.

Is there a specific law which I can read or at least some standards and if so do these only apply to the UK or a specific country or are there general rules I can abide by?

Many thanks for any assistance.

Rowan
Commercial Director
Naked Penguin Boy
www.nakedpenguinboy.com

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the interest, I am looking for the legal stuff for running a chat room. One of my clients would like to have one but their target market is quite young and they wish to know what the law is and what T&C's they would therefore need.

Yes that would also include things like would I need a complaints procedure.

Thanks
Rowan

On 18:15:50 24 March 2006 PaulWalsh wrote:

Are you looking for legal stuff for running chat rooms, or are you looking for advice on how to control access to inappropriate content? Do you want to know if a provider is obliged to offer a complaints procedure for example?

Are you speaking from a provider or user perspective?

I'm afraid I've asked you more questions than you :)

Paul

On 17:50:42 24 March 2006 RowanHeasley wrote:

Hi All,

I wonder if someone can help, I am trying to find out what the law is with regards to public chat rooms and one to one instant messenger type applications. I suppose one could include forums in this topic too.

The worry comes in if the chat rooms are aimed at minors and undesireable adults of a certain nature attempt to enter. Is the law different for one to one messenger applications?
Swearing etc we can block most of so I am not too worried about that.

Is there a specific law which I can read or at least some standards and if so do these only apply to the UK or a specific country or are there general rules I can abide by?

Many thanks for any assistance.

Rowan
Commercial Director
Naked Penguin Boy
www.nakedpenguinboy.com

Hi Rowan,

This is a question you should ask 'e-minters':

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/e-mint/

(aka Association of Online Community Professionals )

You might also want to talk to and use the services of companies such as Chat Moderators (http://www.chatmoderators.com/) and Tempero (http://www.tempero.co.uk).

You will have to tread carefully when you're dealing with minors, but I'm sure you know that. Moderation is part of the answer (most important part) but can be expensive. Community might prove to be a very powerful marketing tool for what you do, but it will be expensive to play it safe. I used to manage a Warner Bros. community of fan sites that included a very popular forum dedicated to characters of a major game.  Until the brand owner discovered porn versions of the characters (before we did) and pulled the whole community from the site. We did moderate extensively but couldn't offer 24/7 cover, which would have been too expensive.

Good luck!
 

I'm not sure how it works in the UK, but in the US you can go to the law library at your local courthouse or bar association and search the resourch books or their computors. It will give you information on which book will have related laws. It will take some reading, but it's quite easy.

most sites offer restrictions for the chatroom when you sign up, but you have to look pretty good.

Are you in the UK? that is sooooo cool!

On 16:26:42 28 March 2006 Loz wrote:

On 17:50:42 24 March 2006 RowanHeasley wrote:

Hi All,

I wonder if someone can help, I am trying to find out what the law is with regards to public chat rooms and one to one instant messenger type applications. I suppose one could include forums in this topic too.

The worry comes in if the chat rooms are aimed at minors and undesireable adults of a certain nature attempt to enter. Is the law different for one to one messenger applications?
Swearing etc we can block most of so I am not too worried about that.

Is there a specific law which I can read or at least some standards and if so do these only apply to the UK or a specific country or are there general rules I can abide by?

Many thanks for any assistance.

Rowan
Commercial Director
Naked Penguin Boy
www.nakedpenguinboy.com

Hi Rowan,

This is a question you should ask 'e-minters':

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/e-mint/

(aka Association of Online Community Professionals )

You might also want to talk to and use the services of companies such as Chat Moderators (http://www.chatmoderators.com/) and Tempero (http://www.tempero.co.uk).

You will have to tread carefully when you're dealing with minors, but I'm sure you know that. Moderation is part of the answer (most important part) but can be expensive. Community might prove to be a very powerful marketing tool for what you do, but it will be expensive to play it safe. I used to manage a Warner Bros. community of fan sites that included a very popular forum dedicated to characters of a major game.  Until the brand owner discovered porn versions of the characters (before we did) and pulled the whole community from the site. We did moderate extensively but couldn't offer 24/7 cover, which would have been too expensive.

Good luck!