msn question

[lobelia321]

is anyone here au fait with how MSN Messenger works? I've never used it but t'son started to use it two days ago, and now he's gone and got himself into trouble with some online bullies who turned into offline bullies and showed up in a gang after school outside his school gates. I am very worried about this.

How does MSN work? Can strangers invite you into chat rooms? Can you block people? Can you set parental controls on whom the child chats with?

It seems that MSN is not like the one-to-one AOL AIM chatting that I am used to but more like a chatroom to which you invite people. Once invited, those people end up on your buddies list (or whatever it is called) and you end up on theirs.

Any suggestions???

Comments

[ook.livejournal.com]

It seems that not as many people use MSN as they do AIM or Yahoo.

With MSN, you have to have someone'e hotmail email address (or their MSN nickname) to be able to add their name to your buddy list. I think that you can set something in your own preferences to make it so that you have the option to friend them back before they can actually send you messages. Just don't put any of your real life information into any of the user info sections.

You might check into Skype. I think even less folks use Skype and it has similar controls. I've never gotten any chat invites or spam from Skype. Once again, just don't put your real life info in. You could also get a new email.

[ook.livejournal.com]

I might add that with MSN, just because someone has a hotmail address, doesn't mean that they have the MSN chat software installed or activated. If you wanted to run a test, I'd be happy to turn my MSN on and run a test with you.

[rossywar.livejournal.com]

MSN is like the IM version of your hotmail address book. You have "buddies" which are essentially like lj friends. You have to "friend" them back to appear on their list. You can block people, so that you appear offline to them always. I think it's as simple as right-clicking on their usernames on the buddy list and choosing "block" from the drop-down menu.

I hope that helps.

[travelingcarrot.livejournal.com]

I can't help with MSN as every time I try to do anything involving an MSN ID it all goes horribly wrong. I'm not tempted to persevere since I hate microshit anyway. Yahoo seems just better at everything.
Oh, and should you happen to sign onto Yahoo IM any time, there will be a friend request waiting for you...

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I totally take the point about microshit! i think I will remove the MSN application from my computer. And I haven't yet uploaded Yahoo IM!