Microsoft's decision to close down its chat rooms around the world has been met with deep cynicism within the internet community.

The company is to close all open and unmoderated chat rooms in the UK, Europe, Latin America and Asia from 14 October.

Microsoft claimed that the move is to protect children from being targeted by paedophiles and being bombarded with pornographic messages and spam.

"As a responsible leader we felt it necessary to make these changes because online chat services are increasingly being misused," stated Gillian Kent, director at MSN UK.

"These changes will help protect MSN users from spam and inappropriate communication."

The decision has been welcomed by children's charities such as Childnet International.

But because MSN will continue to operate moderated chatrooms in the US, Canada and Japan as a subscription-based service, industry experts are suggesting that the real motive is financial.

Ian Brown, director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, which promotes public debate about the policy implications of new developments in technology, called the announcement an "hysterical" overreaction if the motive is to protect children online.

"I am not sure what Microsoft is trying to achieve here if it is not a financial decision, as it is not going to stop chat on the internet," he told vnunet.com.

"It is disgusting and amazes me that there is still so much hysteria about chat rooms. I could understand if this reaction had been a few years ago when there wasn't much information about the potential dangers.

"It is also patronising to children. Does MSN think they all sit there unaware of the dangers and that, just because they can't chat via MSN, they will stop?

"All that will happen is that they will turn to the hundreds of chat programs that can downloaded free."

Freeserve, the UK's largest internet service provider, which also hosts chat rooms, is reported as saying that it was "very surprised" and "disappointed" at the decision.

It suggested that the reason behind the move was more likely to be that Microsoft was not prepared to invest in policing the services because they do not make money.

But, regardless of its motives, Microsoft's decision is likely to increase the pressure on other chat providers to pump more money into ensuring that safety guidelines are visible and more moderators are hired to monitor chat room activity.

Will Gardiner, Childnet's research and policy director, said: "We welcome [Microsoft's] move and hope it encourages providers to continually review their [chat] services."