Can anyone explain how MSM works

[Philly]

This probably sounds pretty lame but can anyone explain to me how msm works and how safe it is.My ds(12) wants to use it,apparently all his friends do(!)but I feel unaccountably nervous about this.Any info useful!

no idea philly ,but do know it's msn,as dd lives on it!sorry

Its msn :) Its where you type your your friends over the internet. You swop email addresses and chat..you can also swop photos etc too over the net.
My 8 year old types to her friends on it, you would need to set down some rules about only chatting to people he knows from school though i guess.

sorry yes I did know that actually!!Bad typing as trying not to laet ds see that I am querying this !!

\link{http://messenger.msn.com/Xp/Default.aspx\heres the site for it}

What sort of safe are you talking about, pc safe or ds safe?
Its pc safe, wont kill your computer, and as long as hes only adding mates addresses and chatting to them it would be safe for him too.

Both really.But how do you make sure that they are only talking to their mates?sorry know that i probably seem really dim here.also is it possible to keep a check on what they are doing other than staring over their shoulders.Its not that i want to invade his personal space,I know taht it is important that he feels he has some privacy,but it concerns me that he could be talking to all sorts of people without me knowing,also he thinks he is streetwise,but we live in a small ruaral comunity and he goes to a selective school so he is pretty sheltered really!

Well you would see the email addresses(hopefully they would have peter pauld etc in them so you would know)...how popular is he...if he has say 15 mates you could keep on top of that...you can also record all the conversations that take place....hmm, whether you would want to do that or not is up to you, theres a box you tick to do it.

Its NOT a chat room...he would have to add the people himself, the peoples addresses.

No-one can get his MSN address unless he gives it to them, or vice versa

If he wants to block someone, he can, and they have no way of speaking to him via it.

It is very safe, much safer that chat rooms as he is in control

And you can record conversations

Oh yes thats a massive plus, my brother stays in my house when I go out, he uses my PC.

hee hee

Welshboris!!!

Do tell..........

Hes 15, its all lol, innit, kk, coz,fk etc

May aswell be in Turkish.

I know hes in love with a different girl every week though, hes soppy like that

Just wanted to say thanks for the replies,we have agreed to have a chat about it and from what you have said i feel quite reassured!