Internet Chat Room Addiction
What is a "chat room"?
A chat room is really nothing more then a virtual space that has been specified an owner of a website, where people can communicate in a private way, sort of like I.M. where there is not a long delay or lag time between the exchange of communication. There are icons in a chat room, which means there are images you can put on of yourself, not necessarily photos but representations of yourself.
What is addictive about "chatting"?
Well, what becomes addictive about chatting is what becomes addictive about other things. There is a potential for arousal, feeling good, and sharing a naughty concept; it all has to do with the ability to sort of change how we feel inside. It's just another mechanism to change the way we feel. It's a product of modern technology, and it is a way of people from very different parts of the world can exchange knowledge and information. They never would have run across one another before; it's a very safe way, and it's sort of addicting, because it's sort of a fun feeling to exchange this information. Never in the course of man's history have we had this ability to exchange knowledge, and to talk about things in a real time way. The old days we used to send letters, and that used to take months. Now it's instantaneous, the exchange, and therefore the scope of the discussion, could be monumentally larger.
Why are chat rooms dangerous?
In of themselves there's nothing necessarily dangerous about chat rooms. Yes, young girls could get involved in a chat room and start interacting with someone who misrepresents themselves as perhaps younger or misrepresents himself in some other ways, and the danger lies in the out of chat room activity more than the in the chat room activity--the requests, the seduction, the predator preying on the naiveté of the other member and encouraging involvement outside of that chat room.