Skype is not new - there has been plenty of time to iron out problems with children using the system and their security. Where are the law-makers on this?

Rose, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

I agree that printing the names of the men in question would be a breach of privacy.

But some kind of reassurance that they were not simply 'told-off' and left to their own devices would be heartening. A man soliciting attention from a 14 year old; going as far as to try and meet up with her, is not simply going to never contact children again just because he's been caught by a reporter. It's foolish to think that this will stop him in any way.

Skype should develop some kind of set up where men like this are lured to meet up with 'children' and then ambushed by police. Being told by a reporter "you've been a naughty boy, don't do it again" is, frankly, going to absolutely nothing at all. Maybe they'll have been a little scared, but I very much doubt they'll cease in their disgusting behaviour. And to think some of them have children of their own.

The Times has a duty to pass the details of these men on to the authorities.

Felicity, Oxford,

After reading this article and then the statement that "The Sunday Times has decided not to identify the men after fears were expressed for their safety". Are there any other sane adults out there who like me who couldn't give a monkeys about the safety or rights of paedophiles? Despite all their protestations and statements of "I'll never do it again", if a paper exposes this sort of activity then they should be reporting these individuals to the police. How do you know they're not abusing their own children or their friends/families children too?

yummy mummy, Surrey, UK

How about concerned people everywhere and parents in particular BOYCOTT EBAY which owns SKYPE and BOYCOTT SKYPE itself. With the money these internet companies generate they can't pay computer experts to find away around this type os abuse?!? Of course they can!!! They just don't want to spend the money or resources to do it. I, for one, am so completely disgusted that this type of online abuse is knowingly tolerated by any company. They should shut the whole thing down before they accept it one more minute. These are CHILDREN we're talking about! We as parents and human beings have the highest obligation to protect them, but shouldn't these same demands be placed upon the companies which are providing the means for predators to prey upon them?

Bethany Moore, Halifax,

The Internet is BIG: not all information is comfortable reading for adults, far less for young children. It also facilitates communication the world over...
You choose books for children carefully, so why should they have indiscriminate, unsupervised access to the Internet?
The Internet is vastly more complicated and potentially dangerous than crossing a busy road... but you take great pains of teaching that task.

Best play games on gaming consoles (e.g. PS/2, Wii) and use the computer for productive work, not play.
Ensure you supervise all the time your child spends online.
Make their computer account a limited account (not administrator) so that they cannot install unapproved software, and keep the strong password for your administrators account private - so that you are in control of what gets installed on the computer.
Provide basic mobile phones.
This way keep your child safe online, computers in the context of time saving devices - not time wasters - whilst you keep control.

R Wilson, Oxford, UK

It has always been easy to enroll responsibility on others - in this case Skype - without taking a look on what's going on at home.
Fact is that many parents do not know, what their children are doing wether out of the house or at home. On the first base I think parents themselves have to be avare of the danger lurking for their children. In the first place it is their "job" to prevent them to become a possible victim. When you do not talk to your own children they won't notice the danger.
It is not just a question of Internet-access at home, but also at school, on mobile phone or at an internet cafe.
To start things change, you have to do it first in minds and not just calling out for monitoring private chats.

Susanna, Budapest, Hungary

There's a lot that could be done. Too much to describe in a comment.

Age checks on contact - if contact is from young person to older, that should also be suspicious (possibly someone masquerading as a teen), as well as older to younger. Pop up a warning note in the chat or in the call notification window, with a link to get help about nasty messages (bullying and grooming)

Skype has APIs. I believe that some allow monitoring IM (chat). Offer teens and pre-teens a message content checker that only passes approved language. This isn't perfect, but it would catch the idiots you trapped.

Skype doesn't offer chatrooms. So there's no moderator possible. However, there *could* be moderated safe areas offered by Skype. There are paid services on Skype by authorised professionals... So professional moderators, Police vetted, could host real chat rooms.

Space limits on posting comments... there's more ways to tackle this, I think.

Jeremy Chatfield, Bedford, UK

The way to avoid this threat is called 'parenting'. Monitor your child's access on a computer connected to the Internet or you will have a 100% chance your children will be solicited. FBI Report - USA

The Chat solution used is irrelevant and Skype is no more dangerous than any other solution. Chat Rooms are responsible for 70%+ of first contact.

Don't put personal information in your profile. As a parent, I would not allow this. There are simple solutions to avoid this so use them and this won't happen to your kids.

Don't believe the FUD of articles like this - Monitor your child's access or they will become victims. Be a parent and install software to monitor your child's access. Spend $100 and avoid virtually 100% of the risk.

MG - Computer Security Consultant

Michael, Wisconsin, USA

I would say that Skype has a defenite excuse for nor implementing that, Ian, in that it is a huge invasion of privacy. Pedophiles may be bad, but they are not worth giving up all our rights for.

Lilly Avian, Reston, Va

Ian,

If people wanted their conversations monitored, they would be using Yahoo! or AOL services. The solution you offered defeats the whole purpose of Skype. While I don't support the Paedophiles who take advantage of younger people, I do support prviacy. Is that too much to ask for?

cerge, OP, USA

Well done to the Sunday times for exposing this. I dont believe for a moment that this loophole cannot be closed, especially with the technology available today.

Michael, Weston super Mare, Uk

Of course there is a way of monitoring the chat. Simply arrange for the peer software distributed to anyone whose profile indicates that they are under age to flag any messages containing words from a dictionary of triggers, and forward those messages for human inspection.

This is maybe a couple of person days of work (depending on the sophistication of the matching) and Skype have no excuse for not having done it prior to launching their service.

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

Yes this is definitely a fact .
I am a regular user of Skype, & have found it to be great fun during the 4 months I have had it.
. However , I have been shocked at how many men do have a childs photo in their profile, I did inform Skype with names of these men, but never received a reply from them.
It was difficult to find a place to lodge my complaint on the Skype website so I was never sure my email was recieved.
I am very pleased to read someone has done something about it.
Anytime I see a childs ' pic ' now I speak to the man & insist he changes it to an adult photo.
I would like to add it was mainly non British men that I found showing children .

Maggie Millington, Brittany, France

Surely it is as much the responsibility of parents to monitor what there children, espiecally teenage children do on line. Too often the home computer is simply a way of getting them out from under foot, and as with TV, parents fail to monitor what they are doing. It is wrong to make Skype and other internet service providers scapegoats for parent who cannot be bothered to see what thier children are up to online. Another major failure of parenting is a failure to talk with thier teenagers, rather than simply dictate to them, about the risks and dangers of talking to strangers online.
Also we forget that teenagers are interested in sexual matters, and it is harmful to pretend that they don't. Parents have to be prepared to discuss these things. Otherwise, children will simply explore these thing in secret and unsupervised. Not talking to teenage children about adult matters simply makes life easier for the preditor.

Andrew Culpit, Medway,