We’ve all thought about it, getting to know someone really well on the internet and wanting to see what they are like in real life. Most people only ever just think about it but never go to the extent of meeting up with online friends. I’m sure you get preached to about not knowing who your online friends really are, but do you?

Meeting up with your online friends is always going to be dangerous as long as there are people out there who are wanting to hurt people. I highly discourage meeting up with online friends, but if you ever get into the position where you feel that you want to develope a friendship with someone please follow these few steps to keeping yourself safe!

1. Speak to you parents about it, they will obviously be hesitant about it, but if you can prove to them that your friend is who they say they are ( Show them the person on camera etc. ) they should be ok about it. – Arrange to meet in very public places, never meet someone at their house because this is obviously dangerous for you.
2. Make sure your parents know exactly where you are and phone them when you are going somewhere different and when your coming home, this will also help them trust you when you want to go places on your own.
3. Get to know them alot more than just one “meet up” before going to their house and staying over etc. Everyone thinks that they know who they are talking to on the internet, but sadly this isn’t always the case, think about your safety before even thinking about meeting up with someone you know nothing about.