Shoutbox

OK, my mistake, I completely read your post wrong.  I though you wanted to stop friends seeing not sending, so basically ignore what I said.

Theres a basic MSN option whether to show Custom emoticons in the Options>Messages tab.  I don't know if you'll be able to still use them yourself, but it'll stop the annoying ones.

I do know what you mean about people using those.  I've never had anyone that extreme... but that could be because I block people when they start using flashing ones, because the give me a headache.