Source: Insafe
What is a chat room?
A chat room offers direct communication with any number of other people in real time. The chat rooms are virtual meeting places, where people from all over the world can ‘meet’ and ‘talk’ through messages which they write on their keyboard. As the word ‘synchronous’ implies, in order to chat with other people, we have to ‘meet’ at the same time in a chat room.
Very popular are the so-called “Instant Messenger Programs”, through which you can be informed when your friends are connected to the internet. Then, you can invite them to chat, send them messages, files, etc. which they will immediately receive and read.
What are the benefits?
Chat can provide superb educational opportunities for children to communicate with others all over the world. For example, children use chat facilities to work on a collaborative project with a partner school and can have an online debate about issues related to their work. Although many schools ban chat facilities, it is possible to allow certain areas for specific projects. Children talk about enjoying using Chat as it is a free alternative to SMS.
How do strangers contact the young people in a chat room and what are the dangers?
Most of the time strangers use fake information to get close to the young people, for example they give false name, age, interests. Then, with devious methods they start communication with the young people, and gain their trust over time. So, these youngsters (thinking the chat rooms are safe) start revealing personal information about themselves, their friends and family, and giving out their address, name of their school, telephone numbers etc.
Such strangers are very patient and take a lot of time to collect enough information about their potential victims’ life, eventually even starting to ask questions about their sexual experiences. Then the conversation may be led to sex issues, and it is possible that those strangers send pornographic pictures with minors involved, in order to pass the message that such an activity is not bad, or in order to put potential victims in an awkward situation so that they won’t tell their parents. Such actions aim at weakening the potential victims and persuading them to take part in sexual acts later on.
Also, many strangers ask youngsters to physically meet when they believe that they have gained their trust. Such meetings can prove really dangerous, and lead to sexual abuse or even to kidnapping with fatal consequences.
How can I chat safely?
It is easy to chat safely by following a few simple rules:
1. Virtual friends can be different from what they claim to be. Just as you can be anonymous so can others!
2. Always use a moderated chat room. Chat rooms can either be moderated or unmoderated. A moderated chat room means that all of the conversations that take place are being checked either by technology or in some cases by a human moderator. Moderators are able to prevent users from staying in a particular chat room and can also intervene to ensure that they stick to a particular topic or theme in a room.
3. Never give out personal information such as your email address, your home or school address or your phone number.
4. Never give out information about your family, your friends, or other third parties. Providing this sort of information can make you vulnerable and help others to locate or identify you.
5. If you feel that somebody is harassing you, remember: you can just exit the chat room with one simple ‘click’.
6. Never arrange to meet strangers you only got acquainted with over the internet. If you want to meet, always arrange to do so in a public place, and always go with your parent or an adult you can trust.
What can I do if someone is harassing me in a chat room?
Always remember that you are in control. If you are chatting, and feel that somebody in the chat room acts strangely or is trying to harass you, just end the conversation and exit the chat room with a simple ‘click’. Immediately inform the chat moderator. If somebody keeps harassing you through your email address, then you should immediately inform your parents or a trusted adult and ask them to help you block those messages. Finally, you can consider changing your email address.
