I had unrestricted access to the internet too from maybe age 10 or so, but it was a different time in the late 90s/early 2000s. Massive social networks, YouTube

I had unrestricted access to the internet too from maybe age 10 or so, but it was a different time in the late 90s/early 2000s. Massive social networks, YouTube, etc were not much of a thing until I was in my mid teens. No smartphones, and PCs were clunkier to use than today. Playing videogames, hanging out on forums and reading news & Wikipedia were about the most engaging things I could do at the time. I saw plenty of violence and sex earlier than I should have, but like you said I feel the internet is a different beast these days. At the time, it was merely an unrefined double-edged sword of time wasting and free information. Now it is more addictive, filled with experiences designed by morally degenerate PhDs to prey upon our basest psychological weaknesses to make money for megacorps.