THE decision by Microsoft to close down its chatrooms has been greeted with criticism by many of its rivals.

Although at first glance the shutting of the rooms will put a block on abuse of them by paedophiles and spammers, there are fears that the move could be counter-productive.

Experts believe that paedophiles could exploit the move to find out other ways to contact children they first met online.

Many children may start sharing e-mail addresses and mobile phone numbers in a bid to stay in touch with the friends they made on the web.

Another fear is that children could be scattered to corners of the web that are less popular and so more difficult to track down should problems arise.

It is still unclear if other companies will also close their chatrooms, but considering the furore Microsoft's move has caused many may just hang-fire.