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Chat Safety Tips
We are trying to make sure that if you come and chat Alder Hill that you have a pleasant and SAFE experience. Since this is the net and not the real world none of us can be 100% sure of who we're chatting to unless we have met them in real life. So please take a few minutes to read this and note down the ideas. We realise that some people may come to Alder Hill who don't have the best intentions and they may be online predators. So this document exists to give you a few pointers on what you can do to protect yourself and a list of places where you can report any sort of harassment, or even if you find that the behaviour of one of the chatters freaks you out. You may certainly report it to us here at Alder Hill and we are prepared to report incidents, especially sexual ones, to the offender's ISP or to the police if we feel that would be best thing. We will treat harrassment incidents of any kind very seriously. Tips 1) Never give out too much personal information to someone you don’t know in real life. People will ask you your age sex where you're from and such, but you don't have to give anything away that you don't feel comfortable with. If you don’t want to give out any information then you don’t have to do so, just tell the person that you prefer not to give out that kind of information. You should keep your real life location as vague as possible. 2) Beware of handing out e-mail address, it would be good as well to use an e-mail that does not give out your full real life name, instant messenger numbers, never give out telephone numbers or your address. 3) If you do give out an e-mail or instant messenger save all conversations that you have with the person, especially if they ask you not to. If you need to contact someone or talk to someone it is good to have this to show them just what is going on. 4) Never arrange to meet up with someone by yourself, especially if they are the only person who is going to be there. Take someone else with you to meet the person; if you are a minor then I suggest that you bring a parent or someone that you trust who is older. Alder Hill will definitely have real life meetings, and these can be fun. To ensure that it's a legitimate get together check that we have a forum thread on it somewhere. Check that more than one person is going and that the group is a mixed group. If you are still unsure contact one of the organisers and ask them, or contact one of us to ask. 5) Never feel afraid to talk to family members about whom you meet online, do be worried if someone is asking you to keep your friendship secret. Ask yourself why they want the relationship to be secret. 6) Feel free to have your parents contact us if they feel concerned about the chat room. 7) There is a list of organisations that you can contact, if you feel the need then contact them. 8) Feel free to block people that harass you on e-mail and instant messengers. 9) If you met them through Alder Hill please let us know who they are so we can look into it and take appropriate measures. You can contact us here, or simply send us a mail. |
