I agree. I don't spend much time on their forums (never posted, but do browse occasionally). I think there could be somewhat of a chilling effect--I know I'm less likely to "go nuts" with a post if my name is on it and simply don't post things that might come back to haunt me. I'm not sure it really makes any difference, though. If you're posting things that you wouldn't want your name associated with, why post it in the first place? Hiding behind a pseudonym just doesn't cut it. I think a great policy to follow is that if you wouldn't say something in public (or to someone's face), don't post it on the internet.

As far as the "worst case scenario" goes, that's a worn-out excuse. The girl in the scenario should tell her parents, who should communicate to the man to leave her alone. If he won't comply, that's what cops are for. Again, a lot of the problems involving kids and the internet could be solved if the parents were more active in the child's life. Sure, some bad choices will inevitably be made, perhaps to spite the parents, but that's sadly just a fact of life with teens.

I could imagine someone posting something really offensive, and some hothead getting fed up enough to actually try to get in touch with the person. I'm not sure how you could do that with just a name, but let's say they figured it out. What are they going to do? Perhaps call up the person and cuss them out? I seriously doubt they'd bother traveling somewhere, but unless the person is really and truly insane, I can't imagine that leading to murder or even assault. It's not like someone that insane isn't surrounded by people anyway (again, regardless of a forum).

What I think would make everyone feel safer is if we had better treatment of mentally ill people in this country. All anyone seems to focus on is physical health--mental health is largely ignored in all but the most extreme cases.