Legal Issues

Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick


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Can AOL Be Forced To Put Safe Sex Notices In Chat Rooms?

from the under-what-sort-of-law? dept

An interesting battle is brewing between some health officials and AOL. The health officials are worried that people using chat rooms to set up real-life sexual encounters aren't doing anything to protect themselves during sex, and its leading to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases. Thus, they're trying to sue AOL to force them to put up safe-sex messages on those chat rooms. From a general community standpoint, that seems to make sense, but AOL has pretty good reasons for not doing it. As they point out, they're just setting up an open chat room system that anyone can use to chat about anything. They don't have the capability to determine which chat rooms are being used for these purposes, and they point out that users may get upset if they feel they're being spied on in some way. At the same time, there's simply no legal basis under which AOL should be compelled to post such a warning. Of course, taking a step back from all that, would anyone actually pay attention to such a warning?

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  1. No Subject Given

    by Anonymous Coward - Jan 22nd, 2004 @ 12:07pm

    this is crap,
    i can't belive people put the time and energy into a thought process that leads to this kind of.. well.. crap

    how about we setup officials at motels who will knock on doors making sure all occupants are having safe sex.. would produce better results thats for sure

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. slt

    by korn - Jun 23rd, 2006 @ 4:45pm

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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