Business Week has an amazing article characterizing the Internet as a cesspool of crime and depravity. The article approvingly quotes somebody saying “[More than] 70% of all e-commerce is based on some socially unacceptable if not outright illegal activity.”
To give you an idea of the tone, the main body of the article starts with this:
Warning: You are about to enter the dark side of the Internet. It’s a place where crime is rampant and every twisted urge can be satisfied. Thousands of virtual streets are lined with casinos, porn shops, and drug dealers. Scam artists and terrorists skulk behind seemingly lawful Web sites. And cops wander through once in a while, mostly looking lost. It’s the Strip in Las Vegas, the Red Light district in Amsterdam, and New York’s Times Square at its worst, all rolled into one–and all easily accessible from your living room couch.
The remainder of the article reveals that there are bookies, con artists, and drug dealers on the Net. Thank God we don’t have those problems in the real world.
