• Seattle Post Intelligencer/AP, Thursday, December 6, 2007 11:19 AM

A automated Santa that Microsoft created for children to instant-message with has been shut down after a reader of a United Kingdom-based technology news site, The Register, reported that a chat between Santa and his underage nieces about eating pizza prompted Santa to bring up oral sex.

After declining the writer's repeated invitations to eat pizza, a frustrated Santa burst out with, "You want me to eat what?!? It's fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else." The exchange ended with the writer and Santa calling each other "dirty bastard."

Santa is just one of many "agents," or automated IM programs, that computer users can chat with on Live Messenger. Some of the bots are programmed to fend off inappropriate messages, says Microsoft spokesman Adam Sohn. The company's engineers tried to clean up Santa's vocabulary, but even after making changes to the software, it wasn't comfortable keeping him online.

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