The chance that an old pedarest could get the home phone number of a pre-teen is as unlikely as it is in the real, nonvirtual world. The fuss made over the threat of hopeless pedophiles using online services to meet kids ignores the reality of online chatting.
Predictor: Dvorak, John C.
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 column in PC Magazine, John Dvorak writes: ”The reason online services are so popular has a lot more to do with virtual matchmaking and sexy chit-chat than with anything else … You can go into private virtual ‘rooms’ and exchange phone numbers, promise to meet, agree to do lewd things, exchange photos. It’s pretty tame and it seems fairly harmless. The chance that an old pedarest could get the home phone number of a pre-teen is as unlikely as it is in the real, nonvirtual world. The fuss made over the threat of hopeless pedophiles using online services to meet kids ignores the reality of online chatting … While there’s no evidence that the majority of online chatting is about sex, the systems that encourage open, anonymous sex chatting are the most successful.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Crime/Fraud/Terrorism
Name of publication: PC Magazine
Title, headline, chapter name: Sex Online: Shhhh, It’s a Secret
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 93 http://web1.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/472/912/33914639w1/purl=rc1_ITOF_0_A15509683&dyn=7!xrn_2_0_A15509683?sw_aep=ncliveec
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Cooley, Theresa M.