A lot of people on this forum are in great need of this guide for some reason, so, in order of most importance:
- Do not give any personal information to anyone you do not know in real life. This includes but is not limited to:
- Your phone number, people can get your full name and address from a phone number do NOT give it away.
- Your last or first name
- Obviously your address
- A photo of yourself or your surroundings (geoguesser exists)
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Do not engage in spaces where s*xual topics are casually discussed (this includes weird asf memes), this includes private 1-on-1 dms, group chats, and especially any discord, leave immediately if you see behavior like this.
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Do not online date under the age of 18 (when you don't know the other person irl). People can easily lie about their age, even if you ask for a face reveals. Face reveals can be faked by using photos of random people or children (they may also source unsearchable photos from others they may be messaging).
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Do not engage in toxic spaces such as twitter, random badly moderated discords, etc. People who are overly aggressive, bullying, or attempt to isolate others are HUGE red flags.
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Be cautious around people who try to manipulate you with tactics such as:
- Threatening you with the end of whatever validation, praise, or friendship that they usually force onto you ("whats up bestie!!!!!", or "You are genuinely the best person i've ever met!" when you literally just met them) in order to try to force you to do anything.
- Just threatening you in general tbh
- Validation and praise being utilized as weapons
- Forcing you to do things you explicitly don't want to do
- I just realized that the first bullet point lowkey covered all of the manipulation tactics people use
- Even if you trust someone online you don't know irl for any reason, always apply these rules to interactions with them.
