The way parents talk about about children these days is weird. I hung out in tons of sketchy and seedy places as kid growing up in the mid-90s with the internet at home and I did not turn into a train wreck.
...or maybe that's the reason I'm hanging out on HN with the rest of you as an adult.
That’s a nice story of personal bias. You survived, so todays kids should too, right?
Well, times have changed and the creeps have gotten creepier and more organized. They have more channels, more ways to hide, more ways to collaborate, and more ways to do serious damage.
As for the 80s and 90s? I also survived doing some stupid and shady things on BBSes and the internet. I don’t want children to have learn the lessons I learned the same way. I also know people who didn’t come out okay. Who didn’t have a parent or friend check in on them, and got in deep in bad stuff and ended up in prison or dead. Don’t try to cook up drugs in your kitchen using a random recipe on the internet, kids.
I did too, but mid 90s internet was Disneyland in comparison. Phone phreaks and anarchists and warez rings aren't like the professional groomers recruiting for terrorists and pedophiles and slavers.
...or maybe that's the reason I'm hanging out on HN with the rest of you as an adult.