Whenever you read about people doing things you yourself would never dream of doing, you naturally wonder: Is it a warped individual nature that is to blame? Is it the nature of the time, the place, the circumstances?

Warped or not, an individual need never be alone. There's always company to be found. The internet is an inexhaustible source of encounters among like-minded people who, pre-net, would almost certainly have rotted in solitary frustration.

The net's power to bring people together is much celebrated and does much good. Its tendency to nurture our basest impulses is much derided and does much harm. There's a site for every taste, some of them not too savory.