Oh yeah. *That* is balanced reporting.

Over at the Hot Point blog, there's an entry titled "Why the internet can be a bad place to meet people. A murder in Virginia. The Taylor Behl story." It's a huge rant about not meeting people on the internet. Towards the end, there's a paragraph that reads:

All of the above said, there are many positive relationships that have been formed as a result of individuals meeting over the internet. Most internet dating services have a portfolio of success stories they are very happy to share. It's also true that it's the minority of meetings that result in someone being victimized. In fact most meetings will be just fine. Nevertheless, it is important to realize that it's much easier for someone up to no good to find you over the internet than it is in person. Regardless of how you meet someone, it pays to be careful with who you associate with — this holds particularly true when comes to meeting people on the net.

This is the only redeaming quality to the entire article. In general, you only hear about the bad things that happen, whether they're on the internet or in society. I'd be interested in a study showing whether meeting on the internet is statistically any more or less dangerous than meeting in any particular place IRL. Comments?