interesting topic you choose since I do have children. Currently my 13 year old teenaged daughter goes on IRC (only occasionally). Her father and I have told her the dangers of the net and she does NOT accept private conversations from anyone (most likely they are harmless but you may never know). I know in my heart and mind I've done my best teaching her the dangers of IRC but not to be overly paranoid about it. It's hard to draw the line - people who have kids will certainly understand.
I've been lucky - ever since I came onto the IRC scene, I never came across anyone who was *overly* sexual in his or her conversations either in public or pvt. (besides the usual ASL questions).
My daughter did come across 1 idiot who tried to message her but she used the appropiate commands and let me know about it... since he never said anything in public I couldn't come up with a reason to alert authorities. Luckily 1 good *don't message* me in public did the trick.
So yes there probably is paedephiles on IRC but with any luck they will be detected and weeded out (arrested etc) but we can't be too paranoid and suspect everyone. IRC is out there for our enjoyment to meet new people, chat online and make new friendships.
My 2 cents worth,
Talea
