if under 18, please read!

i’m about to do that one super uncool, annoying, and probably unneeded unc thing where i give advice to people younger than me when i wasn’t even asked to… but for the love of god, please at least read what i have to say before rolling your eyes and clicking out LMFAO. you don’t have to agree, or even follow with what i’m saying. just read, is all i ask. :)

one obvious thing is, everything’s online nowadays. i know that, you know that. people are online, school is sometimes online, entertainment is online—whatever. my point is, everything’s online, right? i mean, so are you, clearly, if you’re reading this. now, this sounds like it’s going in the direction of a rant about how young people need to get off their devices, but, i promise that’s not what this is, lol. 

anyway, yeah, we already get the point. no need to say it twice. 

the more convenient thing about this website in particular is the fact that there’s like a little filter thingy for age, country & state to discover users that fit those filters, which is pretty cool to me! you can meet someone your age, or from your own state that you probably would have a small chance of meeting just randomly in person.

and there’s all different ages of people on here; like, i seen someone as young as 13 on here (which admittedly prompted me to make this), and then someone as experienced in life as 70. (shoutout to that guy.) 

there’s nothing wrong with minors being on here, obviously—i mean, if there were, i doubt you would be able to put your age as 13 on your profile and still be able to make it past the sign up page. people of all ages are everywhere on the internet, that’s how it is.

butttt

most pr*dators (not sure if this would get taken down if i didn’t censor it, so that’s why it’s bleeped LMAO) are online nowadays, since everybody else is. there’s always been people like that online, but it’s a larger scale of them now, since the internet is the easiest and widest form of connection to users all over the world that you don’t necessarily need to meet in person to know or talk to.

and with this filter thing… yeah, that’s pretty damn easy of a way to connect yourself with a younger age group of people in certain locations when you probably shouldn’t.

nobody can stop another person from sending friend requests. that’s just a stupid idea that’s not even in consideration cause it’s so unrealistic. but, what you can do is prioritize yourself and your safety online.

to those that are already doing steps to protect themselves online—great! but unfortunately there’s still a huge group of people that don’t understand the severity of what they’re doing when they share something so carelessly online, like a photo or video showing their location, or even something as doxxing as that. 

so, i’ll finally shut up here, and give some straight-forward advice to keep yourself as safe as you possibly can online.

#1, my most important tip, don’t accept friend requests from people above the age of 18 if you’re under 16. hell, if you’re 16, be wary of becoming friends with people that are 18, too. it’s only two years, but there’s a clear difference in the mental stage between the two ages, and it’s still easy (and very common, too!) for 18 year olds to take advantage of that trust minors give them and use it awfully. whether you agree or not, it’s still true, and it still happens. 

#2, if you do happen to befriend someone (this goes for any user of any age, really) and you start experiencing problems with this person, utilize what the website has given you by blocking and reporting them. it’s not childish to do that, especially if the problem is bordering on or plain out pr*datory. if you report their account, make sure you ss proof to submit along with the report (if that’s even an option? idk if you can submit images with that stuff, but, it’s worth having proof regardless.)

#3, anybody can hide behind an account. what i mean is, that person you befriended that’s just so conveniently your age and lives near your state could not be the person their profile is describing at all. some pr*dators are stupid enough to have their real age and identity on display when they’re doing this shit, but some are ‘smart enough’ to know that there’s a lesser chance of getting caught if they use a fake everything. so, be wary with your own friends on here, too, if you don’t know them in-person.

#4, stop oversharing! people love to over share on the internet—it’s a thing now, unfortunately, and it’s making people more susceptible to pr*ds and stalkers. stop sharing the exact place you went to last night, stop sharing about your favorite spot that you like going to that’s located near where you work, live, go to school at, whatever. if you’re going to mention a place, be as vague with the location AS POSSIBLE. don’t share any personal information about yourself or your family, either. once again, be as vague as possible.

#5, refrain from posting yourself. once again, people love posting pictures of themselves—its fun to do, i get it, whatever. but if you’re younger, especially under the age of 15 or 16, maybe it’s not the best idea? not saying you can’t post yourself on social media’s like instagram or anything, but on here specifically? maybe refrain from doing so. 

remember — the less you share, the less pr*ds or weirdos have to go off of when trying to lure or trick you. 

hopefully i didn’t miss anything, but, thanks to anybody that read through all that! comments are off because i refuse to let possible arguments about INTERNET SAFETY start.

and idk if anybody’s made a blog or even a forum about this before, but i personally haven’t seen anything and it’s been on my brain since literally last night, so… here we are. if it’s been said before, here’s just another person’s word to push the idea of staying safe on the internet. it’s fun being online, but it stops being fun when you’re put in a dangerous situation because of it, too. 

stay safe, everybody!