Internet chat has become a very prominent source of communication between both strangers, as in Menees¡¦ cartoon, and friends. Many college students use AOL instant messenger, the largest internet chat source, in place of telephones.People are introduced when they meet in cha

t rooms of common interests, and friendships are forged. The problems occur when internet relationships go past innocent friendships. The media has presented many stories about how a child was kidnapped or sexually assaulted after meeting their attacker on the internet. Some parents have responded by banning their children from internet access because of fears of abduction and exposure to inappropriate things. Bonnie Fell, the mother of three boys, for example, will not get internet access in her home because she is afraid that her sons will fall victims of internet stalking (Elmer-Dewitt). In reality, the fears expressed by the media and by Bonnie Fell are potential dangers; however, careful research on and analysis of the internet suggests that internet stalking is much less of a danger than the media makes it out to be.

There are dangers everywhere in the world and problems are always waiting to happen. Sometimes, children are abducted in parks. This, however, does not mean that parents stop taking their children to parks. An argumentative analogy can be made about the internet, although it can lead to potential dangers for children, such potential dangers are no reason for parents to take away this valuable resource, particularly since the dangers are overstated. According to Irish News, only 15 children in Ireland have been sexually assaulted in the past two years by people whom they have initially met in internet chat rooms. There are approximately five million children in Ireland who have private access to the internet. This means that only .0003% or 3 out of every million children using the internet is sexually assaulted as a result of internet access. In , 16 children have been abducted or sexually assaulted as a result of meeting people on the internet. Compared to the outside world where children are sexually assaulted more often, these numbers are extremely small. In 2002 alone in London, there were 577 child abductions, 2,631 cases of criminal cruelty and 2,816 sexual assaults on children. This makes the 16 children who have ever been harmed as a result of internet access seem somewhat insignificant (Hewson). Criminologist David Finkelhor of the University of New Hampshire says, ¡§There are ne

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