SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Ads from several major companies were pulled from Yahoo chat rooms recently when it was discovered that the online groups were aimed at luring kids and minors into inappropriate sexual situations.In the past week, the giant media company has now shut down those chat rooms, as well as the ability to create new ones.
Yahoo spokesperson Mary Osako has stated that chat rooms created and sponsored by Yahoo will remain open. The number of user-created chat rooms varies and those numbers are not tracked by Yahoo, added Osako
The user groups that Yahoo shut down had names including “Girls 13 And Under For Older Guys” and “Girls 13 And Up For Much Older Men.” The groups were all listed under “education chat rooms.”
“We are working on improvements to the service to enhance users’ experience and their compliance with our terms of service,” Osako said. “Yahoo condemns the use of Internet tools for illegal activities.”
Some of the companies who pulled their ads from the inappropriate chat rooms include PepsiCo, Georgia-Pacific Corp and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.
“As soon as we found out we pulled our ads,” said Pepsi spokesman Dave DeCecco. “We were totally unaware our ads were associated with those chat rooms — and that was back in April.”
Pepsi has continued to advertise on other parts of the Yahoo site, particularly in the sports and music sections. They pulled all ads from user-created chat rooms.
“They were down the same day we found out about it,” DeCecco said, referring to the ads on user chat rooms.
“We were horrified to find out we were on those sites,” said Georgia-Pacific spokeswoman Robin Keegan. “As soon as we found out, that day we pulled that advertising.”
Yahoo is also facing various current lawsuits concerning issues of child pornography and user-created chat rooms.
