ABSTRACT
Dark play need not always be illegal. With a guarantee of anonymity, youth will divulge examples of dark play they engage in with friends. One college student, for example, confessed that in high school he and two friends hid in a movie theater until after closing and had the run of the theater throughout the night; female students have confessed to high school group cruising in cars and engaging in dangerous flirtations with strangers. (Sex with strangers can be another form of dark play.) Such activities can become traditional and highly formulaic in young people’s friendship groups, and it is clear from the stories told by participants that it is the danger in the company of friends that heightens pleasure and a feeling of close bonding.
