FTC Issues Consumer Alert on Kids' Exposure to Virtual Worlds

The WWW pedophile  'infestation' is hugely exaggerated (i.e. lots of people think it exists, so it must be a huge problem, but it doesn't, so it isn't).  Heck, you only have to think about it for a minute to realise how much more complicated it is to stalk kids on the internet than it is to do it in real life.  I mean heck, the first hurdle an internet stalker is going to have to overcome is the fact that his potential victim might live 10,000 miles away.  The second is that his potential victim, who claims to be a 13 year old girl, is probably a 56 year-old balding man with a pot belly.  Internet stalking is so unwieldy that no one is going to do it when there are pre-pubescent girls going to a school right in the stalker's neighbourhood.

In short, the internet makes lots of things easier, but stalking kids isn't one of them.

As for scam artists, yup, they exist, and there are a lot of them - unfortunately most of them are in countries where developed countries' laws can't touch them.  As for porn and perverts, who cares?

But yes, I agree with your basic premise - that the FTC should be using its time and money to address real problems.