Life Can Be Treacherous In Cyberspace

One of the earliest lessons young children are taught is “never talk to strangers.” With the advent of cyberspace and the information highway, perhaps that fundamental warning ought to be revived and expanded to adults.

One of the things that makes computer talk so alluring to so many is its anonymity. People who ordinarily wouldn’t think of speaking to a stranger on the street will wholeheartedly take on all comers on the Internet.

Overwhelmingly, most computer experiences are innocent and entertaining. But some people clearly go too far. Thinking they are unidentifiable, they unwittingly provide a great deal of information about themselves to predators.

A determined and experienced Internet manipulator stores information about the person he’s talking with and uses it to his advantage.

Because those interacting via computer usually don’t know one another, guards are sometimes let down quickly. Conversations can, and often do, get far out of hand in a hurry, sometimes turning bizarre, dangerous and even deadly.

Take the case of one married woman in Maryland, who police suggest was murdered in October by a married man who lived in North Carolina. They met on the Internet.

Police say Sharon Lopatka advertised her desire to be tortured to death in various sexually oriented chat groups. And Robert Glass, it’s alleged, responded with e-mail promising to kill her. He has been charged with murder. Many stories have been written about the grim details of this fatal e-mail attraction.

Even more recently, about a dozen people across the country reported to police in New York City that they had had “strange” conversations with 30-year-old Oliver Jovanovic, a Columbia University doctoral student charged with attacking a woman he met on-line.

Prosecutors have charged him with aggravated sexual abuse, assault and unlawful imprisonment, alleging that he attacked a Barnard College student whom he invited to his apartment on Nov. 22.

The woman was tied up, sexually assaulted and tortured for 20 hours after being threatened with death. Jovanovic is in jail, unable to post $350,000 bail.

My own experience with one of those friendly “chat rooms” was that the people who generally sign on fall into two categories: Those who have nothing else to do and those who are incapable of doing anything else.

I’ve found that talking to strangers electronically can be fun - for about 90 seconds. Most of the time the conversations are dull, disjointed, meaningless and repetitive. Entering a chat room is often akin to dialing a number at random and getting involved in telephone talk with an engaging conversationalist who is also adept at keeping people on the line.

For some, electronic chat is the newest and most modern version of Games People Play. Most chat rooms link together harmless individuals from around the country - and even around the world - who evidently enjoy innocuous conversations.

Others invite chatters they find interesting into private rooms, where one-on-one conversations can become very personal.

The Internet, with its easy access, provides many useful and exciting services, but it also has created a new and dangerous playing field for predators to seek out prey.

Steve Jones, the author of a soon-to-be-published book, “The Other Side of the Internet,” outlines the pitfalls:

“You look at what’s going on now on the Internet, and it’s people seeking people. It’s like a movie, where you suspend disbelief, only it’s life, not a movie, so what you also end up suspending is judgment.”

You do so at your peril.

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