Parents were sane back then, it's today that they've gone crazy. They watch too much news and keep their kids caged up, and end up doing far more harm than what they're trying to prevent.
All that freedom was good for my head though, so I'll give you that one.
There used to be a joke about the Internet:
Where men are men, women are men, and kids are FBI agents.
It seems that this is no longer true, and with the massive influx of kids, that itself has increased risk.
It wouldn't make much sense to be a child predator on the Internet in 1998. There just weren't that many kids.
And these days, there are still plenty of parents that let their kids run wild.
I don’t think anything has changed.
I guess what gp is saying is that not everyone that attends the LAN party is able to sling along their computer to the venue so there are more people than machines and of course limited seating for folks without a machine.
BTW, the gp said you might lose your seat and not that your seat gets stolen since there aren’t enough seats to go round, there will always be someone who has been standing for while ready to take you seat.
Some people played until total exhaustion, so around 3AM you started to see people fall asleep while playing. That's the moment the hopefull looker in the next seat would gently grab they keyboard and mouse and 'borrow' the sleeper's PC and finally join the game.
Good times. Don't ask about the smell of the room after a 2 day fragfest.