In response to Mike Delta's comments about chatroom safety (Letters, March 3), I have helped run several chatrooms over the past few years, as well as websites and internet forums.

Most of them have been for people looking to escape their personal lives and enter a fantasy realm where they can be someone else - acting out a role in a fictional world. These people are engaging in escapism.

While many of my friends take on the persona of an elf or goblin of Tolkien legend, if pretending to be who you are not is a crime, then they fall under the same umbrella as the "man of 45 pretending to be a teenager". Would anyone really prosecute someone who is simply trying to escape their reality during their time off?

Protecting the safety of your children should always be a priority.

But rather then punishing the innocent to stop the guilty, parents should be supporting their children, educating them about the dangers of people online, guiding them, and making sure they don't give out inappropriate details or meet people from the web without support and in a public place.

It is proper education of our children that will best support them online, not trying to stop something which is, for many of us, innocent fun.

  • Ric Bunyan, Reynolds Road, Hove