I grew up on the 90s internet. It wasn’t necessarily safe. The biggest difference seems to be that it wasn’t as populated, saturated, and easy for Ye Average Person to get sucked into (or groomed by) harmful communities. They were truly underground. We were hopeful the internet would benefit from (and benefit mankind) via increased accessibility and interoperability, but in retrospect I feel like that was it’s downfall. This is a subjective opinion.