Comments on: The Internet Scares Me

By: Mario (Brewed For Thought)

Mario (Brewed For Thought) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:43:44 +0000

Becky, those were the days. Your fingers whizzed across the keyboards like a woman of at least 16. The color of your font, the slant of your italics, the way you always misspelled “Cleveland Steemer.”

Oh, to be young again…

By: MindWaives

MindWaives — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 04:07:00 +0000

Cai… so what’s pre-dinosaur then? I am 43 and our version of cybersex was the old telephone tie-lines. No idea if you had those in the US but in Montreal, where I grew up, we had those. I can’t really recall how it worked but I think you would dial a certain number and you get connected to a whole bunch of other people—or sometimes just one person. (you know, with the rotary dial telephone—took a long time to dial and usually I’d break my fingernail in the process…) I used to call when I babysat because I shared a room with my little sister and had no privacy at home. I vaguely recall not having a clue what I was talking about and tried to wing it best I could to wing it. I don’t recall ever speaking to anyone who seemed older than a teen though (based on their lack of general knowledge also)… Our adult pervs seem to sit in cars near the convenience store and flash us on our way in to get our junk food fix.

Anyway, the web cam thing does worry me—for my kids that is; the idea of myself on camera is ludicrous—I’d shower in clothes if I could swing it without looking insane… But I subscribe to fully disclosing the danger, in black and white, life and death terms… In other words I advocate scaring the shit out of your kids. Better for them to get therapy later vs. end up in a bad situation now.

By: J.R. Reed

J.R. Reed — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:53:16 +0000

Not having cyber sex, but with a girlfriend nicknamed The Phone Sex Operator, what do you think we have???

Great job Aunt Becky!!!

By: Aunt Becky

Aunt Becky — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:51:58 +0000

That picture looks shockingly like I did at that age. And perverts still kinda make me giggle. Like a lot.

By: Toy With Me

Toy With Me — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:26:50 +0000

@Ebby – OMG 14.4 modems and we were fascinated.

By: Ebby

Ebby — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:32:34 +0000

@CatPS Oh, those chat rooms with the green font and black backgrounds still exist. You also have to reload them manually to see if anyone responded to you. I had my first chatroom experience in one of those–on a 14.4 modem, no less. (Took forever for loading to happen, as you can imagine) It was the dawn of the internet age–at least as far as my father was concerned–and I surprisingly never got talks about giving out my information or anything. Considering what a shockingly stupid kid I was, this is interesting. Still, I managed not to get anyone stalking my house and as I’ve gotten older…..I’ve come to just plain dislike chatrooms. It’s so much easier to find people these days that you don’t really need them to communicate with people now. Now all the creepy people show up on Facebook, but it seems to me that they’re kind of obviously creepy. (Had some random stranger send me a message propositioning me for a threesome with his wife once, actually. O_o) But really, perverts just seem to be fairly obvious about their motives and they just seem to expect their tactics to work–and I guess they do often enough or it wouldn’t keep happening.

Still, I don’t think the world has gotten much scarier, it’s just gotten easier to find international perverts instead of just the homegrown ones.

By: pattypunker

pattypunker — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:01:37 +0000

i remember the old chat rooms too. cyber sex was incredibly hot and safe from all things STD, preggars, and commitment.

but i wasn’t prepared for the cyber sex cowboy! i got all worked up with this one guy and actually felt the emotions. and don’t ya know he up and went, never to be heard from again, after our cyber marathon. how do you get cyber hurt? leave it to me.

so anyway, in many ways the internet is safer than being at the mall, a club, a park, a concert, in public. we just have to be internet savvy like we are street savvy.

By: anne

anne — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:05:22 +0000

Bah hahah! I remember doing the exact thing with all of those creepy themed AOL chat rooms. Hello, entertainment!

By: Wicked Shawn

Wicked Shawn — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:05:05 +0000

The internet is a scary place? Hmmm, Drama Queen and 2 of her friends were followed out of a department store a few weeks ago by a 60+ perv, she had texted He Who Loves All Things Wicked because they had realized pervy was following them, so when He showed up and Dram Queen turned and pointed pervy out, He found security and gave them a good description. Pervs don’t just cruise the interwebz. Simply put, just gotta teach our kids about safety in all situations. Period. Also, if you people don’t quit talking up this damn Chat Roulette I am clearly going to have to don last year’s Halloween wig and give it a spin.

By: CatPS

CatPS — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:51:27 +0000

Looks like I’m about two years younger than you AB, and I totally remember getting in the chat rooms when I was around 11 or 12. Some of them were even that creepy green font on a black background that you only see nowadays in movies where the interwebz is a super-skeery monster that is going to slap a “Perverts and serial killers, check ME out!” tag on your forehead. But really, it was no big deal. I did not cyber, as my mother provided a reasonable level of supervision, and because I was a goody-two-shoes being raised in the bible belt.

But if I had? So what? Even at that age I wasn’t stupid enough to give out my full name or address to some unknown person. I don’t have kids yet (the day is coming, once my hubby FINALLY finished grad school) but when I do I certainly won’t be afraid of them being on the internet with a certain level of autonomy. I don’t think I’ll allow computers with internet behind closed doors until at least 16, and I will teach them that IT IS STUPID TO GIVE OUT YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS TO UNKNOWN SOURCES ON THE INTERNET!!! I mean, DUH?!?!? My philosophy is: Don’t be scared, just don’t be a total freaking moron.