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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tom Strickland" data-source="post: 6287417" data-attributes="member: 6753119">There was nothing imagined or "silly" regarding my concerns and first-hand experiences of months-long persuasion leading to violent attempted force by early teen boys to explicitly sexually molest me, a pre-teen, while participating in a social group away from adult supervision as a result of conspiratorial deception by the perpetrators (they always had cover stories and benign-seeming motives which matched) [in contrast to later true friends that I gamed with, and also groups of youths in Boy Scouts and martial arts].One can fairly say there was "moral panic" at a societal level regarding D&D and imputed causal factors leading to criminal and deviant behaviors in "impressionable youth".However, it would be unjust to make light of any real instances of harm that involved that game as a setting.I only make a comment when sweeping generalizations are made that all stated harm that occurred during that period was fictitious. I do not take exception to the many explanations of general "moral panic" and overreaction.The key take-away points for some people are that:- Sexual crimes against children existed decades ago, and exist today- Parents and organizations charged with youth oversight must strike a balance of involvement and must be wise regarding threats which do actually exist in society--focusing on criminals and their telltale stratagems which can be leveraged in numerous settings and activities, including role-playing games</blockquote>

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