There was a time when I could be naive on the Internet. I miss it.
Back before Facebook and way before iPhone I worked for a company that developed a mobile social network. Yes, they existed before iPhone and before Facebook. Have you heard of WAP? There was also an SMS interface.
Once upon a time we added a free and anonymous chat. Anybody could go there and post a message. There was no chat history. No accounts. No usernames. We were super naive in letting random people from the Internet use it.
But the people from the Internet were naive too. There was no bulling. No CSAM. Nobody was selling illicit substances. There was not even that much of strong language in use. No more than you'd see in a typical action movie.
Can you imagine something like that today? I have seen disturbing images published to NPM as coding libraries. Some of them still haunt me.
If you are naive today and create an app for botanical enthusiasts to share locations of rare plants - the next day someone will use it to organize illicit substances transactions.
If are as naive to create an application to give small gifts to strangers as a thank you, the next day it will be used as a payment processor for a CSAM network.
If you allow a user to choose any username - the first one to register will use a swear word.
If you allow an image upload - the first one will be a dickpic.
I remember the first time I was online. I opened a website of a computer magazine and there was a "chat" link on it. I clicked it and said "Hi! I am Lex, and I am 13 years old. How are you?"
And a person with a nickname int13h responded and we had a chat. That person asked what are my interests and encouraged me to explore programming.
If I am in a chat today and some 13 year old posts a message like that, I'll talk about online safety and ask the kid if they are OK and why their parents letting them use an unfiltered chat online.
I miss being naive about the people online. But even more than that, I miss people actually being naive online.