MSN Messenger Police Alert Button

from Guardian Unlimited

Users of Microsoft's Messenger email service will be able to report suspected sexual predators directly to the police at the click of a mouse. In an attempt to protect the 11 million users of the service from potential abusers, the software giant has struck up a partnership with the Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre (UK).

Microsoft will add a "report abuse" icon to Messenger that will link any users worried about their anonymous internet buddies directly to online police services. Set up earlier this year to provide a single point of contact for the public, law enforcers and the communications industry to report the targeting of children online, CEOP offers advice and information to parents and potential victims of abuse and works with police forces around the world to protect children.

The debate about online safety has heated up recently, with social networking sites such as MySpace becoming enormously popular with teen- and pre-teenage children.