This is utterly untrue. Every day, tens of thousands of people meet up with folks they met on the internet, and most have no troubles at all. I have had great times with folks I met on the Internet.
We take much bigger risks every day. This is exactly the sort of childish, unscientific fear-mongering that a story like this is meant to generate.
Take proper, commonsense precautions, like meeting someone in a public place first, and have fun, kids.
TPM didn’t use to do tabloid fodder.
It’s an AP story.
What on Earth are you on about? Where does this “insight” come from?
Ha, yes, that’s what I meant.
You gotta admit that this guy had a bit of a Jeffrey Dahmer look to him, what with the saucer eyes, unkempt appearance, and expressionless glare. I guess another common-sense precaution would be to imagine your “date” as the picture atop an article about two kids being butchered and ask yourself whether he would look out of place.
Well someone needs to proof these yellow journalism pieces.