Hi guys,
dont know if im posting in the right place but......
I have a question about live messenger.
My daughter was on Messenger and got talking to who she thought was one of her contacts.
when i checked the conversation history i found it disturbing with the contact asking my 8yr old for sex.....the contacts parents swear that their computer was not logged in, or even switched on.
The contacts display picture was different, a man with no top on wearing a mask.

What I need is a way to be able to trace the message back through an I.P address. is this possible.?

The contact has claimed that he has been bullyed into giving out his username and password to someone at school....dont know if this is related.

Concerned

I dont think thats possible, it may even be a breach of privacy, but this may not be possible because people can use web messengers (such as meebo and ebuddy) from all over the world to connect to any one of their email addresses...

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because people can use web messengers

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I presume the "contact" whose account was used is a boy about the same age as your daughter?

The two things that need to be done here are 1)have the boy change his password; 2)advise him to be careful.  It is highly likely he has been talking to the perv too -- and that's how the perv got his account information.

Even if you were able to obtain the IP address that was involved, it wouldn't tell you anything more than the perv's general area -- which, in a large city, could be the entire city.

It may seem a tad harsh to certain people, but I recall that at that age I was not allowed such access to the internet unsupervised. It would be quite safe to assume that since this issue could end up being quite dangerous it might be safer to ensure the presence of an adult whenever such access is given. If that isn't possible, maybe it would be much easier to simply disallow such access until it is 100% safe to allow it.

It's not very safe for a 8yo to be on Messenger unsupervised because of things like these that could happen.

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Originally posted by dar3n
I realise that, I dont know about others but I know that web messenger doesnt show the display picture so it was def from a IM site.

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Originally posted by .Lou
It may seem a tad harsh to certain people, but I recall that at that age I was not allowed such access to the internet unsupervised. It would be quite safe to assume that since this issue could end up being quite dangerous it might be safer to ensure the presence of an adult whenever such access is given. If that isn't possible, maybe it would be much easier to simply disallow such access until it is 100% safe to allow it.

It's not very safe for a 8yo to be on Messenger unsupervised because of things like these that could happen.

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Are you positively sure it is the same contact she talked to? it could be someone she added in her list thinking it was one of her friends.

The only thing you can really do about this is to educate your daughter to make sure she ignores this kind of thing and report it to you rapidely, as she apparently did already. It's in the very nature of internet to allow "anything" to be done so, like in the real world, there's not much you can do to prevent it (although, it is usually recommended to keep computers used by children in public places in the house, like the living room, where you can keep a watch on what's happening).

Now, to answer your original question, it is very unlikely you'll be able to get the IP address of the person she talked to. The IP address of contacts is kept "secret" by Messenger's servers for security reasons and can be obtained only when special actions like file transfers are performed.

Yep, Ive come to the same conclusion, unless I make a formal complaint with MSN who will in turn pass it to the authorities to deal with, theres not a lot I can do, no file transfers took place, so traceability is near impossible.

The user was the name of a known and supposedly trusted friend. and if someone was using his computer at the time we will never know as his parent s are adamant that he was nothing to do with it.  They have or are having someone [a friend] look at the comp to see if it did originate from there...personally i think any history will magically disappear.


I have made the decision to block the individual, plus he is fully aware of the situation so if he was responsible hopefully it was enough to put the frighteners on...

My daughter has been spoken to about the possibilities and the dark sides of the internet, she is aware now that she must tell us immediately if it ever happens again and not wait until afterwards.

Hopefully it wont happen again...but if it does the Police WILL be notified...lets hope it doesnt come to that.....

thanks to everyone who has contributed to this post.

if nothing else - a lesson has been learned.