I'd like to adjust my comments and say it all. FR.

this started even earlier than the 1990s.

my brother and i started off as kids on computers. by junior high school we were playing around with some stuff, like dial-up BBS systems and such. i was writing code to forge my school attendance report so i could skip entire semesters of school. (LoL)

most people think the phone system was secure... it wasn't this is where the word "phreaking" comes from (phone system hacks). people (we did not do this) hacked it all the time, posted about it with how-tos and some of these BBS systems had plans for nukes, bombs, and all the same stuff people worry about online these days.

the problem is not the internet, BBS systems or phones. the problem is people and their behaviours... including governments and corporations.

none of this gets or got reported on because they think people aren't interested or say things that imply that people are too stupid to understand. i don't agree. never did.

these things are interesting if you make them interesting and easy to explain if you use plain language and don't dumb it down.