Benjamin Acker
alt.internet.chat_rooms
ot long after my
arrival at USC, I ventured to the basement of Waite Phillips Hall to set up
my UNIX account. After the initial confusion with e-mail, newsgroups,
gophers and a virtual Mt. Everest of commands, I started to get the hang of
things and understood just how enormous this thing called the internet
actually was.
A few months later,
employing a Telnet command I learned from a friend, I discovered a whole
new continent in the world of the internet -- the chat room. Never having
been to a chat before, I typed in a phony name and entered a password. Some
cheesy-looking ASCII art scrolled, and I saw several other names, most of
them as phony as my own. Apparently, I had navigated
my maiden voyage into chat-room-land through turbulent waters. Expletives
of incredible creativity flashed on the screen. I was instantly asked by
five people if I was female. When I typed "no," they ceased talking to me.
There was even one person who asked me where I was from, how old I was,
what I looked like. Of course, I continued to play the game of phoniness,
and within two minutes, I had divulged that I was a 53-year-old spot welder
from Detroit with a pot belly and a tattoo of Nancy Reagan on my chest.In the past four years, I
have never returned to that God-awful place. But I have found a couple of
places on the internet that are filled with seemingly good people. Some of
their "names" -- Kimmy, Lightsaber, Devilgirl, Pennywise -- are just as
phony as my own handle, but these people have always been friendly and fun,
never intrusive or belligerent. While I have never met them IRL (in real
life), they always welcome me back to my little corner of the `net with
net.smiles and net.hugs. It is silly, I suppose, but no more so than going
to a bar or a park bench or even an elevator and conversing with
strangers.Unfortunately, the entire
internet is not such an alt.net.utopia. It would seem that any normal,
level-headed person would understand that something as huge as the World
Wide Web attracts its share of idiots, cynics, weirdos, criminals and
murderers. But unlike that bar or park bench or elevator, an internet chat
room does not allow for any of the visual clues as to a person's actual
identity. Seemingly, such a limitation would warrant an extra level of
caution among those of even the most average intelligence.Apparently, no one thinks
that the innocent-looking PC on their desk at home poses any threat. Recent
tragedies, many of them involving children, have shocked the world into the
reality that the lines between "virtual" and "real" are sometimes drawn in
blood. A 15-year-old boy from New Jersey allegedly raped and strangled an
11-year-old neighbor. The accused murderer was obsessed with computers, and
an investigation into the case unearthed that he had conversed for hours
with strangers in chat rooms, ultimately having been raped by a man from
Long Island whom he met on the internet.Another case making recent
headlines involves a 12-year-old Orange County boy who was coerced into
traveling to Virginia to meet a man he encountered in a chat room. The boy
alleges that he was raped and beaten, after having been found hiding in the
man's Virginia home.It is easy to point a
finger and scapegoat the internet as a technological terror gone awry.
While it is true that the internet allows easy access to sites featuring
pornography, drugs, tobacco and alcohol, and chat rooms with shady
characters, the internet also has revolutionized the retrieval and
acquisition of information from around the globe.Parents need to play an
active role in the safety of their children. Yet, while most parents would
not dream of letting their kids run wild in the city, many seem not to have
any qualms about letting their children access the whole world on the
internet. Children need to understand that when you plug that phone line
into the back of the computer, it is no longer a toy, but a powerful tool.
And just like any power saw or sledgehammer, a tool like the internet needs
to be treated with knowledge and respect.For the rest of us, we too
need to be fully aware of what the internet is and what it is not. Chat
rooms, no matter how interesting or comfortable, are not reality. While
they can be a fun way to meet people online, as a rule, they don't
substitute for the real thing; and if mistreated, they can become a
dangerous addiction, just like other online use, alcohol or drug abuse.Make sure that, to ensure
your safety and health, you understand the ramifications of your actions
before you go online. The internet may be virtual and a product of the
imagination, but its effects on our lives can be very real. And if our collective
dependence on computers is any indication, the reality is here to stay.
Benjamin Acker is a senior majoring in business administration.