Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Dateline NBC
Have you been watching the Dateline series that has been replaying (over and over) the last couple of weeks? It's about catching online predators chasing after young kids. It's disturbing on several levels. One is that these creepy guys (and most are pretty creepy appearing) are going after young kids. Another level is that there are young kids who are letting this happen. And on yet another level is that many of the guys (all guys so far) don't really seem to be able to stop themselves from doing something they almost all admit to being wrong.
I've been online for a lot of years -- dating back to pre-Internet days. Back in the "good 'ol days" it was bulletin boards. That was were you would leave a message and come back later and see what the answers, if any, were and then reply, etc. Occasionally there'd be interactive chats, but that was pretty rare - you both had to be logged in (300-2400 baud back then) at the same time.
One of the things that always freaked me out was young girls (at least appearing as that) who would contact you. A few years ago, I was using ICQ for messaging. I was going to college so kept odd hours and was online a lot. A few times I was contacted by a young girl. The first thing I'd look at was their profile -- check their age. If they were young - anything under 20 - I'd let them know I wasn't at all interested. Once, the person said they were using their kid's account - that one made me uneasy. A couple of times the girls would really get upset when I didn't want to continue chatting. One worry I had was if a young kid was trying to appear older. What would happen if you went expecting to meet a 40 year old and she turned out to be 15? While it never happened, that always worried me.
I have met in person a few people I met online. One group had a get-together luncheon put on by a BBS owner in Colorado - Henry Birdseye - I don't remember the name right now (Unknown BBS??), but it was dedicated to humor - of any kind. I've met a few others in person as well. All with good results. And oh year, the ICQ chats? I met the best of the bunch on ICQ - my wife.
