KerryJ’s Neotenous Tech

Okay, so that wasn’t the headline that I saw in the RSS feed from the ABC.  Their story started with the following: “Police are warning internet users to be careful when they form relationships in cyberspace, after arresting a man who allegedly held a Perth woman captive after meeting her online.”

Umm - what if they’d corresponded as penpals?  Then my heading would work, wouldn’t it?  Or what it they’d met in a bar?  Would the police warn us away from bars? Or what if they’d met at work? Or in a coffee shop? Or in line at the police station?

Come ON here — don’t blame technology for an error or three in discernment.  Online or offline - if you make an error of judgement in relation to strangers, you are engaging in risky behaviour.  Thankfully the woman and her daughter in this story got a happy ending.