our unsafe internet 7 of august, 1998 by johnmichael patrick monty monteith

If you surf the boob tube every so often you might have run into a story about the unsafe individuals you could meet online. Unfortunately, much of the talk surrounds particular crimes where some pervert meets some teenager in an Internet chat room, and suddenly it is news at 11. As with any new technology, even though it could easily be said the Internet is nothing new, the media must have an enormous learning curve. Lets face it, if an AOL subscriber started a serial killing spree tomorrow that had nothing to do with the Internet, you can bet that the media would mention that the person was an Internet user. But is the Internet really all that scary? Regardless of the media's need to make the Internet look like convict central, anyone with a little electronic history knows that this sort of communication is nothing new, and actually getting safer every day.

Although nearly obsolete these days, as much as twenty years ago computer bulletin board system were the electronic communication method of choice. These are comptuer systems that 'sysops' (system operators) would set up in their home, hook up a phone line (or many phone lines), and allow computer users to 'dial in' and communicate with each other. In fact, the more advanced BBS's had most of the interaction and graphics that you will see on many web pages these days. They included chat rooms, message boards (the equivalent of newsgroups), and large download areas. Probably the biggest differences between a BBS and your average Internet web site is that you do not need to pay monthly fees and wait for 10 minutes to load a page of information on a BBS.

Many of the new Internet phenomenons have been around in BBS land since the early 80's. Thanks to networks of BBS's throughout the world, it was possible to communicate with people all around the globe on many bulletin boards. Of course, you were communicating with potential convicts as well as the neighbor next door. Many of the BBS's out there did a good job of testing the boundries of free speech by being 'adult boards' (in fact, of the BBS's that remain, most of them are these types of systems). People were meeting each other online, falling in love, and getting married in the BBS world over a decade ago. However, I do not recall a couple 'losing their virginity' online on a BBS, but I bet it was done.

There really is very little on the Internet that was not already conquered by these little computer bulletin boards. By the late 80's computer bulletin board system had chat rooms, graphics, sound, and most of the conveniences we find on the Net. However, bulletin boards were not necessarily all linked by a giant network, and for that reason it did not have quite the level of popularity the Internet is enjoying. Still, you would be hard pressed to prove that the Internet is all that different than the BBS world.

Fortunately for sysops, the dangers of bulletin board use was never hyped like that of the Internet. In fact, the BBS world was considerably more dangerous than the Internet. A strong case could be made that the percentage of 'wackos' on BBS's was much higher than that on the Internet. In addition, because BBS's were locally based, that wacko you are talking to on a BBS at 2am could find your home and break in by 2:15am by simply using his phone book. On the Internet, they probably would need to take a plane to make it to your country and state first, if they could even figure out where you were from.

For women, BBS land was far more dangerous than the current Internet simply due to the numbers. On bulletin boards the number of women online was less than 5%. On the Internet, the number of women is quickly reaching parity with men. In fact, because there were so few women on BBS's, normally sane men suddenly became convict material when a woman would join a BBS chat room.

Lastly, thanks to our press, everyone knows the dangers of Internet communication today. Ten years ago, teenage girls would log onto a computer bulletin board and find themselves electronically surrounded by men. Today, most teenage girls realize the dangers and do not give out any personal information when chatting on the Net. I can not say that was the case on BBS's.

My point is that this new scary technology called the Internet is really neither scary nor new. These dangers have been around for a long time, and very few problems have come up, despite the potential danger. The vast majority of us know it is not smart to give out personal information on the Internet, and therefore do it very rarely, if at all. Most of these new scary things that the press has been writing stories about have been going on for more than a decade, and will continue for quite a while longer. As long as human being have a method of communication, there will always be a chance for less than pleasant happenings. Would you give your name and home phone number to some stranger you meet on the street? I would hope not. The same is true in an Internet chat room. This is common sense stuff. And 99.99% of the Internet users will never face a problem because of it.

The Internet is in fact a safer communication method than the electronic world has ever had in the past. The press has made everyone aware of the dangers, including those that will never surf online. New security methods in the tools we use to surf allow us to easily communicate without too much worry of someone digging into our lives. And frankly, most of the scary material online has been being communicated electronically for longer than anyone in the press realizes.

So explore those chat rooms, surf that web, and post those newgroup messages knowing that there have been nearly twenty years of electronic travelers that have covered this ground before you. It isn't such a scary place after all, now is it?