Posted by John Birch on January 17, 2001 at 14:43:29 from 194.6.79.172:
In Reply to: Re: faggots etc posted by Robert Dilley on January 13, 2001 at 20:16:23:
"Those of us with children presumably explain (as also mentioned in a recent entry) that Port and Starboard going off on their own with little or un-known adults was pretty silly even then and downright dangerous now"
Why the comparison with then and now? The numbers of child abductions and murders by strangers is no higher now than it has been for the past 50 years or more (ie. extremely rare) - despite a significant increase in population. The only thing that has changed has been the lurid reporting in newspapers, and the panic that this produces.
It would be no more (or less) dangerous for Port and Starboard to act in the way they did today than it was then.
In fact, all things considered, what with improved communications (today they'd each have their own mobile phone), water safety devices (ie. life-jackets), and so on, it would probably be safer!