A few of us were talking about internet safety the other day - specifically bulletin boards like MySpace & Facebook, chat rooms and blogs. Really, they're a creepers dream and a parent's nightmare. One guy, a father of 2 young girls, says ignorance is bliss since he's basically unaware of what's available to kids and how often they're sharing personal information and photographs with strangers simply by posting it in the public domain.
Then I started thinking was it any different when we were teenagers? Does anyone remember those party lines? There were a couple of summers while I was in high school where you could dial 41091 - can't believe I remember the number - and you were connected to a no-limits party line. When we first became aware of it there weren't many people using it. You could talk with guys, give them your phone number, make contact one to one, then arrange to meet somewhere. By the end of the summer people were basically yelling their numbers over the hundreds of other voices, then hanging up and waiting for the phone to ring. I guess technology has options for every generation. My best friend met a few guys this way and she'd arrange to meet them at the subway station or whatever. Her mom always went with her (that's how you know she had the cool parents and could tell them anything. Plus, they kept their weed in a big jar labelled oregano - thought we didn't know about that eh, Mrs. G.?). My mom on the other hand would have had a fit if she thought I went on the party line. I actually only met up with one of the guys in person but spoke to lots who ended up calling my number. "Yeah mom, it's just some guy from school" generally worked.
Anyway, the biggest difference now is the fact that kids are putting up photos and personal contact information and not always using the available security measures to hide it from the nasties. Fortunately, the nasties sometimes identify themselves for us. Take the case of this guy who, on realizing he didn't have a photo to post to his newly created MySpace site, attached his mugshot from the sex offenders registry. He was subsequently arrested for not registering his MySpace account with authorities.