When I was a minor, I cammed with adults on Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger (I hope this doesn't age me). For me, I didn't fit in my suburban Georgia middle/high school. I wanted to be told that I was attractive, that I was hot. This would later turn into Craigslist casual encounter hookups. I was 16 meeting older men; some married. I also didn't know much about safe sex practices for MSM, as I was not educated in 2010. I do know that I was taken advantage of as a teenager, even coerced into doing acts I was not ready for.
We are now in a time where we should be going out of our way to help LGBTQ+ youth whether it's predators/groomers here or on apps such as Grindr. When you're 16, you do not always have the mental capacity to know right from wrong. Which is why as elders, we should make sure youth are not in danger regardless of said platform.
