The worldwide web can be exciting and mind-stretching, but it also has the potential to be dangerous. The goal is to expose yourself to new ideas and people without letting anyone take advantage of you. Here are some guidelines to follow--on gURL.com as well as other sites around the internet--to keep web-surfing safe and fun. Remember: You're usually okay if you take the same precautions online as you do in the outside world.
1. Do not give out personal information (real name, address, phone number, school location) to people you don't know, whether in chat rooms, on bulletin boards or on personal homepages.
2. Don't believe everything that people tell you (or that you read) online. You have no way of knowing if someone is lying or telling the truth online. Be skeptical.
3. Never meet face-to-face with someone you met online, except in a public place with other people present. Bring someone with you and let an adult know what you're doing.
4. Do not tolerate harassment. If someone online is harassing you, ignore them! Keep an eye on anyone or anything that is making you uncomfortable (inappropriate nicknames, for example), and do your best to stay away.
On email:
If someone harasses you over email, do not respond. You (or your parents) can contact the internet service provider of the harasser to register a complaint. If you use a mail program with filters (i.e. Eudora), you can set up your filters to watch out for the person's email address and send those messages directly to the trash.
