That is, the items are published to the Internet and, when accessed, can only be responded to by e-mailing the site publisher. There is no real contemporaneous or personal interaction. Chat groups and newsgroups, on the other hand, are interactive by design. In chat groups, conversation is live. When a user joins a chat channel they are plunged into the midst of an ongoing discussion.
Topics are subject only to the whims of the participants.
Even if a group tried to limit access to adults, they can do little more than ask a new participant if he or she is over 18. Newsgroups are groups to which interested users can subscribe and receive organized e-mail discussions from a specific group of people. These groups suffer from the same problems as the live chat group, except that the conversation is by e-mail. Because the discussion is not live, a parent can more easily monitor the groups with whom their child has contact. The problems with chat and newsgroups are not limited to child initiated contact.