Fergie's Tech Blog

All Predators, All the Time? Maybe Not

Steven Levy writes in Newsweek:

Dateline NBC's" "To Catch a Predator" series is can't-take-your-eyes-off-it television. The format is familiar by now: lured by the promise of sexual contact with a minor discovered in an Internet chat room, one creepy adult after another shows up at a house where parents are supposedly away. But instead of hooking up with a pliant teenager, the predators encounter 6-foot-3 "Dateline" correspondent Chris Hansen, who verbally reduces them to squirming grubs before dispatching them into the hands of collaborating cops. The thrill of seeing potential child molesters punk'd has drawn high ratings, and NBC has so far packaged five such investigations into twice as many shows. As Hansen explained to me recently, "Dateline" is performing a service: letting people know that really bad guys are out there.

But there's a downside to the "Dateline" series. Casual viewers may wind up equating the Internet itself with evil—and let fear affect their responses to this crucial medium. Scott Heiferman, CEO of Meetup.com—a Web site that facilitates offline meetings of people who share interests like knitting, politics and Chihuahuas—has seen the effects when he's run focus groups of potential customers. "There are thousands of people a day who do not sign up to our service solely because of 'Dateline NBC'," he says.

posted by Fergie @ 6/25/2006 12:17:00 PM