Chatrooms are a fun place to engage in discussion about a variety of topics. While most people who frequent online chatrooms are good people, there are some who are there to prey on or bully other people. Limit information you put on your public profiles. While some predators may ask you for personal information, others may stalk you and look at your public profiles to get information about you. To avoid this, limit the amount of specific information you put on your chatroom or social media profiles. Do not tell people where you live or frequent. Perhaps the most important part of staying safe while in a chatroom is not providing information about your actual physical location. Avoid giving out your full name. Instead of using your name, try using a nickname or an alias. Do not give your phone number out. In addition, they could use the telephone to get you to trust them and then manipulate you. As a result, never give out your phone number to people you meet online. Photographs that show what you or your friends look like can give away enough information to encourage unwanted attention. Ultimately, you could attract the attention of a predator or stalker. This is important, as predators, stalkers, and others who want to do you harm may suggest meeting up somewhere at some point. In the end, simply say no to meeting in real life. Never meet in a private location, if you do plan to meet someone. Any meeting you schedule with someone you met online should be in a public location. This way, there will be others around in case something goes wrong. Tell a friend if you'll be meeting someone from a chatroom. Notify a friend or family member that you'll be meeting someone you know from a chatroom. Tell them the location, and ask them to call you if they haven't heard from you in a certain amount of time. Call the police if you think someone you met online is stalking you. If for some reason you suspect that someone you met online knows where you live, is following you, or stalking you, call the police immediately. While your local police may not be able to stop someone outside their jurisdiction from harassing you, they may be able to work with authorities elsewhere. Watch for people who make sexually suggestive comments. This includes them talking about or describing sexual acts. In addition, you should be very suspicious of anyone who asks you to talk about sexual acts or requests you to engage in them offline. Be suspicious of people who ask personal questions. Although it might seem normal for someone to ask you questions about yourself, you should be suspicious of people who ask you personal questions. If anyone asks whether you are alone, live alone, or are frequently on your on, you should be suspicious. Block threatening or scary people immediately. The very instant someone threatens or scares you, you should use whatever tools the chatroom or social media site has to block that person. If someone in a chatroom suggests that they are going to hurt you or someone else, if they threaten violence, or do anything that leads you to be suspicious of them, you should report them immediately. Tell others what is going on. If someone online makes you uncomfortable, scared, or threatens you, you should tell someone immediately. Cyberbullying is the act of someone trying to intimidate you, make you feel bad, or simply harassing you. If someone commits cyberbullying against you or someone you know, you should report it to an adult or an appropriate authority. For a list of places to report cyberbullying, visit:. Or, you can send an email or message to the creator of the chat room and have the person, or people, banned. If this is not possible, your granddaughter and her friends should find somewhere more private to conduct their chats. It's a quick way to see if a website is trusted by the community or not. Chat rooms can be very dangerous in different ways, so it's best to know what other people say about it. Usually the top search result will be the best.
