Monitoring content of discussion forums in hands of volunteers
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The front pages of Internet chat-rooms and message boards assure the reader that the discussions are monitored, and that violators of the rules will be punished. Banned content includes child pornography, racism, promoting criminal activity, or sale of sex services.
"People see chat-rooms as their own home, which they want to keep clean. Violators are quickly removed", says Sami Mollgren, webmaster of the radio station Kiss FM.
Often monitoring involves volunteers, who are active participants in the discussions, and who have been given the right to moderate the discussions.
However, the number of moderators varies from one service provider to another. Jippii has a few dozen, while Suomi24 has more than 100.
"The goal is to have at least one monitor in each chat-room", says Nicklas Koski of Suomi24. He said that monitors largely make their own schedules.
In some cases a user can be completely banned from a chat-room. Such a move might block access to all computers in the same network.
On message boards, monitoring usually takes place after the fact, and is taken care of by the administrators of the web site. Inappropriate messages are removed, often after tipoffs from users.
The effectiveness of monitoring often depends on the vigilance of the participants and their willingness to report objectionable material to the administrators.
"Going through every message before publication would not be possible with today’s resources because of the volume of the discussions, and it would not even serve the purposes of the discussions", says Rami Niittysalo, head of the Internet department of the television network MTV3.
Jammu Mattila, head of sales at Jippii, also suspects that there are no options to supervision.
"If there were mandatory registration for the pages, then there would be a loss of a certain sense of community. Many would hesitate, because they are uncertain of what the information would be used for."
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 21.4.2004
More on this subject:
 HS investigates: Few obstacles to sex trade on "moderated" chat sites
FACTFILE: How the study was conducted
BACKGROUND: Who is responsible?
Helsingin Sanomat
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