Be careful who you trust online and remember that online friends are really strangers. People online, no matter how long you have been talking to them or how friendly they are, may not be who they say they are.

Meeting someone you have only been in touch with online can be dangerous. If you feel that you ‘have to’ meet, then for your own safety you must tell your parent and take them with you – at least on the first visit – and meet in a public place in daytime.

Stay in charge in chat. Keep your personal information secret when chatting online (name, address, telephone number, mobile number, private email address, picture), even if people ask for this. Although it can be tempting to reveal more than you normally would in online friendships, giving out personal information can make you vulnerable.

Check your profile and make sure it doesn’t include any personal information (name, address, telephone number, mobile number, private email address, and picture).

Get away from an unpleasant situation in a chatroom by logging out (this just takes one click) or by changing your screen name.

Think before you answer private messages. It can be harder to end a conversation in a private chat than in a public chat. A private chat may end up being more personal than you like.

Use a nickname, not your real name, and a nickname that is not going to attract the wrong type of attention.

Look out for your friends and do something if you think that they are at risk.

Tell your parent or carer if someone or something makes you feel uncomfortable or worried.

Learn how to keep/save a copy of the conversation in chat – this may be useful if you want to report something.

How to Save a Copy of Your Conversations

Saving your conversations can provide useful evidence if you come to make a report about something or someone.

1. Highlight the conversation with your mouse.

2. Copy the highlighted text

3. Paste the conversation into a Word document which you can save.

Learn how to block/ignore people.

How to Block Users

For whatever reason you may wish not to see messages from a particular person anymore or receive private messages from them. If this is so you can block this person.

1. To do this you right click on the name of the person in the contact list which should give you a range of options, and one of these is Block.

2. It will mean that you will not receive messages from this person anymore.

3. Block is sometimes called ’Ignore’, and if right-clicking doesn’t work, have a look in your Preferences for this function, or there may be a block/ignore button in the chatroom itself.

Report anything you feel uncomfortable about to the chatroom provider or moderator.

How to Report

You can report people to the chatroom provider or moderator if they are breaking the rules.

1. Keep a copy of the conversation that you want to report and send that in too.

2. Look for a way to contact your chatroom provider or moderator by clicking the Help tab.