Mitigating the Few Chat Room Risks

Most people agree that chat rooms have changed the way we communicate. Chat rooms are popular because they provide for a cheap way to communicate, they allow you to communicate with people from all corners of the world, and you get to communicate with different people at the same time. Other advantages are that your anonymity is maintained if you do not want people to know who you are, they make for great stress relief, they are entertaining, and they allow you to communicate in real time.

Chat rooms have practical uses such as enabling teachers to communicate with students, and enabling students to study. Chat rooms enable patients to communicate with their doctors, and they enable violence victims such as rape victims, the disabled, and those suffering from diseases and infections such as cancer and STIs to share what they are going through with people who are going through the same thing.

There are however a number of risks that come from chatting. Knowing what these risks are, and how to mitigate them is important because you will avoid getting into trouble, and you will have a good chatting experience.

• There is a risk that the chat room you join may have comments that are violent or sexual in nature, and that it may promote offensive activities and hateful attitudes.
• There is a risk that the strangers you meet in dating chat rooms may have ill intentions. There is a risk that they may be cyber stalkers, and that they may be perverts.
• There is a risk that young adults and children may be lured into rude conversations with ill-meaning adults.
• There is a risk of ‘flaming’, which is the unrestrained expression of strongly-worded opinions and emotions. This will make the chatting experience bad for everyone.
• There is a risk of verbal sexual harassment, which is mostly directed to girls.

You however need not worry because each of these risks can be mitigated. You could do this by:

1) You will avoid most of these problems if you stick to credible and reliable chat rooms. Join a chat room where you have the power to report those who use abusive, racist, or sexist language. To get the best chat rooms, read independent reviews, get recommendations from people you trust or join discussion forums discussing the matter.
2) You should never tell anyone where you live, where you work, or where you school. Do not give away your phone number.
3) Do not respond to those who make you feel uncomfortable, and those who are rude or mean to you. This will help you avoid a nasty chatting experience.
4) You should never send photos of yourself, and of anything you own to a complete stranger.
5) If you are in a dating chat room, be careful when someone proposes that you meet. You should only meet in a secure location, and in the company of another person.
6) Teenagers and children should introduce people they meet online to their parents/guardians or to trusted grown-ups.
7) Parents should discourage young children from chatting. One way of doing this is blocking chatting sites.
8) Be nice to the people you meet in chat rooms to make the chatting experience good for everybody.
9) Do not take everything you read or see on chat rooms as the gospel truth.