Aim Is Not For Children

[bender101]

This is concerning AIM by AOL. My 14 yr. old son recently signed up, as all his friends were on the service. In spot checking his messages I noticed that he was getting messages like "We are two girls and a vid camera who will make it worth your while".

This led to a porn site of course. In checking his settings he was listed as a 14 yr old and I was wondering if that is the age that AOL has deemed appropriate to allow porn advertizers to solicit for their services. I personally use MSN Messenger and don't get these messages when im talking with friends.

[IronSerif]

Ahhh I get that too on AOL. I use MSN Messenger as well, and you're right, it seems that you don't get as many, if any, solicitors. At least I haven't experienced any on MSN.

[Archon]

I am sure AOL doesnt allow any advertising on their services (unless approved by them, of course), but his name must have some how gotten out there, and they picked it up. I remember a few years ago when ICQ was popular, you would get all sorts of porn IMs, etc... Just people being retarted, as usual :sure

[Ioman]

I used to get those a lot through both AIM and ICQ. Since I have started using Trillian however, the messages have been almost nonexistent which makes me happy. Now if I could only stop them from sending spam to my e-mail address... hehe.

[llbbl]

It is not clear. Are you using AOL to connect to the internet and read email or are you using a third party and just using the chat client software?

Another helpful tip is to make sure that he does not have a profile listed in AOL's directory. Since he is underage, he has no business having a profile for people to contact him at. All his friends can just find him by his screenname. If he wants a bio about himself, buy him a HTML book and tell him that you will get him his own hosted site for his birthday.

[senoryoshio]

Originally posted by TecknoGeek
. . .Another helpful tip is to make sure that he does not have a profile listed in AOL's directory. Since he is underage, he has no business having a profile for people to contact him at.

Exactly....this should cut it down to about zero....I get zero of these types of IMs, and my personal information section of my profile is empty. Hope that helps.

[dang]

I have never got any type of spam from AIM (ICQ, maybe 2 or 3). I dont have my name published. I think thats the key.

[llbbl]

Hey did I mention that AOL is apart of the RIAA ? No I don't think I did. You shouldn't be using their products anyhow. MSN is waaay better; and that is saying a lot since I'm not a huge fan of M$ products.