MSN Messenger

The most common instant messaging program used by children and adolescents is MSN/Windows Messenger. Instant messaging programs allow you to talk in real time similarly to chat rooms, with the difference that you are able to choose the people with whom you talk. The program displays which of your friends are online at the time, and you can invite one or more of them to talk with you privately. In addition to conversation, you can also share files such as photographs, video clips or sounds with the person with whom you are talking. The program can also be used for playing games with other people and making VoIP or video calls.

The risks associated with instant messaging programs are the same as those related to e-mail and chat rooms. Unsuspecting users may open an attachment file or link that may comprise a virus, malware or material that is unsuitable for children. If the discussion partner is familiar from the real world, discussions are safe. Instant message conversations are always private and are thus unsupervised by external parties.

The safety of discussions can be improved by using the safety settings found in the instant messaging program in accordance with the following instructions.

A user profile, i.e. the user’s personal information, is determined when an instant messaging program is implemented. No personal or contact information should be included in this profile, since they can be viewed by all discussion participants by default. Similar profiles are also used on many web discussion boards and in online games.

Choosing discussion partners

The safest way is to only have conversations with people you know in the real world. However, virtually anyone can send messages to your child by means of the program’s default settings. Programs feature a contact information list to which you can add the persons with whom you wish to exchange messages. In order to prevent strangers from making contact with your child you can entirely block contacts from anyone other than people included in the "buddy list".

Saving conversations

You can also enhance your child’s safety by saving all conversations. Moreover, the knowledge that conversations are being saved often reassures other discussion participants. Conversations can be saved when desired, or the program can be set to automatically save all conversations.

Instant messages − shared fun for all the family

Instant messages are not only for children and adolescents; many companies use instant messaging for in-house communications. If your child is online in the afternoon after school, you can exchange instant messages with him or her from your workplace, saving on call costs. Moreover, you can use the instant messaging program to monitor your child's web use − the program always indicates whether your child is online.

Updated 26.11.2008