Something odd happens to the psychology of people when they hang out in online chat rooms. And sometimes chat room oddity turns sinister.

Mind you, I don't think chat rooms are dangerous, although I do think parents ought to keep an eye on kids' use of such technology with strangers. It's just a subject I think of often: email friendships, chat room friendships, weblog friendships, they're all real enough, are all what we might call cyberspace relationships. As I say, they are real enough, lthough they're different from meatspace friendships.

If someone hasn't done a Ph.D. thesis yet on this subject yet, well, it's certainly a ripe target.