"as a place that governments couldn't reach."
Too right. I don't want any government intervention on my interwebs, tyvm
'the internet is dangerous' is a massive load of guff. Maybe if you don't know how to use it properly (and the government clearly don't) then it's dangerous but if you take the time to learn yourself some common sense before going online you'll be fine.
At the end of the day it's just a tool that allows people to better accomplish their goals.
So bad people have bad goals, what's new? Let's not shut down the internet because of a few bad apples, people.