[heyjamesknight]

But that's the problem: they're NOT safe in those communities.

We've created these unhealthy gardens where young people feel safe, removing any reason for them to engage in the real world. They don't thrive in these places, they slowly withdraw.

[lkey]

If you parents are your abusers, then their 'real world' will be unyieldingly bad no matter what social controls the internet employs.

You have said that 'feeling safe' is 'unhealthy' because it's not 'real'. But constantly feeling and being unsafe, even if it is warranted by circumstance, is worse in every way.

We, as a society, do not support the agency to children to escape horrific circumstances. These online communities are a stop-gap against this active failure.

Ideally, they wouldn't need to escape at all, but that's not the conversation we're having.

[heyjamesknight]

No, I have the feeling that “feeling safe” is “unhealthy” because these online communities children get access to are full of predators who wish them harm.

The online communities in question do more damage than good. They encourage isolation and spread social contagion.

We should do more as a society, absolutely! But these places are not “stop gaps” because they’re NOT helping.