Vodafone Suspends Mobile Chat Room Services

Following an internal review of chat room services, Vodafone Australia suspended its mobile chat services last Wednesday. This action was prompted by a customer call, alerting Vodafone to a chat room user who had found a way around the monitoring processes and divulged personal contact details within the chat room environment.

"Customer safety and security is our number one priority," said John Casey, Chief Marketing Officer at Vodafone Australia. "We have temporarily suspended the chat rooms until we can complete a review of monitoring processes and implement any additional steps that may be required."

"The chat rooms will only be reinstated if and when we can be absolutely confident that we are providing an environment that is as safe as possible for our customers. We strongly believe that it is our responsibility to do the right thing by them," added Casey.

"We were the first Australian mobile operator to implement electronic and human monitoring of mobile chat rooms and have been vocal in encouraging other operators to follow our lead," said Casey. "We will continue to explore ways to make sure our chat rooms are safe and fun environments for our customers to enjoy."

Posted to the site on 11th July 2005