Activity 3 Are They Safe?

Activity Think about what we can do to stay safe if we meet people from the Internet.

Think… Listen to the stories about people planning to meet people from the Internet in real life. Do you think they are safe?

Tell people where you are going and who you are meeting. Arrange to meet somewhere public where there are a lot of other people. Take a friend with you. They can stay with you until you feel it is safe.

Know how to get away quickly if the person is not who they say they are. Check who the person is BEFORE meeting them using video chat

1. Jack Jack wants to meet a girl he has been chatting to on Facebook. He arranges to go to the girls house to meet her.

2. Alex Alex has bought a train ticket to visit someone he met while playing an online game. He has not told his parents where he is going and the train journey lasts two hours.

3. Nicola Nicola is meeting an online friend at the local shopping centre. She is taking her mum. She knows some friends who work at a local shop if things go wrong. She also met her friend on Skype before agreeing to meet.

4. Anne Anne asks her online friend to go on Skype to check who they are before meeting up. The online friend gets annoyed and says that they should just meet.

Anne does not want to hurt her friends feelings so agrees to meet.

5. Sarah Sarah asks to see her friend on video chat before they meet up. Her friend says she does not have video and sends Sarah a photo of herself instead. Sarah agrees to meet after seeing the photo.

Answers

1. Jack Jack has not arranged to meet the girl in a public place. You should never meet an online friend at your house or theirs.

2. Alex Alex has not told anyone where he is going which is unsafe. If he is travelling on his own he is not being safe by taking someone with him. Travelling a long distance to an unknown place is dangerous.

3. Nicola Nicola is helping herself stay safe. She has arranged to meet at a public place. She is taking her mum for support. She has friends nearby if things go wrong and has checked who the person is using video chat.

4. Anne Anne should not worry about her friends feelings, she has a right to know who her friend is on video chat before she meets them. Maybe the person is hiding something if they don’t want to go on video chat.

5. Sarah Sarah is right to ask to see her friend before agreeing to meet up. It is easy to send a fake photo. Sarah should not think seeing the photo means the friend is who they say they are