Social networking, micro blogs, text messaging, cell phone, netbook, and tablet computers, chat room, IM, and email are all common ways to communicate that are available to us today. We can now “speak” with strangers on the other side of the world and loved ones on the other side of the house with ease.
All of this communication makes the world a much smaller place and increases our basic understanding and tolerance for how others may live reducing misunderstandings across nationalities and even nations. But there is a dark side to all this openness that must be addressed for adults as well as children.
Most people seem to believe that they are protected due to the basic anonymity and often distances of both the internet and cell phones where the face is not seen or thousands of miles separate but that is not really true.
Although it is possible to speak with a thousand people online who are perfectly harmless it is also possible to chat with one who is not. There have been several instances in the press as well as out of it where people just like you and me have fallen prey to someone they met and trusted online. With that in mind, there are precautions you should always take to help keep yourself, family and even your valuables safe while chatting online.
Personal Information
Age, sex, and location are questions that are asked all of the time. Most of the time these questions are innocent enough and a part of normal human curiosity but sometimes the answers can actually hurt you. Unfortunately, the possibility that you are giving your home address to a serial killer has to be taken into consideration.
If you are one of those people who feel compelled to answer then you should practice generalities. For instance my age is grandmother which also answers sex and my location is south east United States. True enough for me to feel I answered in a friendly manor while general enough to really not say anything. You can also be a bit funny and still answer the questions in a friendly way for instance for age: old enough, for sex: no thank you and location: Earth.
Offline Meetings
You should never meet up with someone you met online unless you have a friend who is a mutual offline friend. But if you feel that you need to meet up with someone you met online there are a few precautions you should take:
- Make sure the meeting is in a busy, crowded, and public place like a local coffee shop or shopping mall.
- Take a friend along with you. There is often safety in numbers so taking a friend along to meet a new friend is a good idea.
- Always tell someone where you are going and when you will be back and stick to it.
- Call a friend to check in regularly while you are gone. In the event that something happens to you, you will increase your chances of rescue if someone knows where you are supposed to be and help is dispatched quickly
Screen Names
We agree your screen name should say something about you but there are safe screen names and unsafe ones. Here are a couple of rules you should follow when choosing screen names and email address names.
Never use your real name even one your business email. One thing that many of us tend to forget is our email address is clearly posted under our chat profiles so choosing a harmless chat name with your real name on your email box does not really help much.
Your screen name should say something about you but it should not include your real name. A screen name like suprmom is much safer than sxybetty18.
Do not make your screen name too provocative; you are liable to draw the wrong type of person. The above screen name sxybetty18 shows that this person is interested in sex chat, is named Betty, and is 18 years old. A screen name like that is not really made for friendly chat now is it.
Flames and fights
Arguing online is not only stupid it is not safe. While just like out in the real world there are people of all personality types including those who love a good fight there are also those with the “road rage” mentality who just might choose to stalk you all over the net and even outside of it for something as stupid as a minor difference of opinion.
The best way to handle such jerks is to ignore them. This may be difficult to do our in the “real” world but online it is a simple as a click of the mouse. Click the ignore member in any chat room, email or IM and they go away.
Phone Numbers
This may fall under the personal information heading but must be said. Recently on a social media site, I saw someone give out their real phone number to one of their friends. The conversation went something like, “Call me.” “I lost your number.” “***-***-****.”
The two people who were talking were offline friends from school but the information was placed on the “Wall” of the site for everyone to see!
I was also looking at my friend’s online dating profile and noticed that she had placed her real phone number in her profile settings. She was wondering why she was getting so many disgusting phone calls and text messages.