Online Dating Safety

Online Dating Safety

Just because you are not sitting across from someone in a bar or restaurant where you must have your guard up, you should not let your guard down with online dating. In fact, because you cannot monitor a person’s reactions or looking into the eyes (the window to the soul), you should take extra care regarding safety when considering online dating.

For the most part, online dating offers wonderful opportunities to meet someone special and since you are communicating from the comfort of your own home, there is a level of security. However, because of this laidback approach, too often people will start telling the stranger on the other end of the computer all types of things that could be turned around and used to cause harm. Therefore, while you want to share information to get to know someone, some things should not be shared, at least initially.

* If the online dating service has a chat room, you should be very careful about the information you share. Far too often, predators will lurk, portraying themselves as other singles trying to make a connection. While you want to have a good time chatting just be careful about the information talked about.

* Never provide any type of personally identifiable information in your profile, e-mail messages, or chat room conversations. This information would include your name, address, city where you live, phone number, name of the company where you work, organizations that you are associated with, and so on.

* Be sure you use the communication tools provided by the dating service. For instance, you want a dating service that has e-mail so you do not have to use your own personal e-mail to keep in touch with someone. In fact, many online dating services now offer IM so that too should be used rather than your personal IM account.