Activity 2 What to Do?

Online Friends When you make a friend online you might get to know each other enough to want to meet them in real life.

This can be risky. If you feel you want to meet someone, you need to do this in a safe way.

Meeting Safely You can follow some steps to make sure you are safe when you want to meet an online friend in real life.

1. TELL Tell people where you are going and who you are meeting. You can tell a friend or someone you trust. Give this person information about the person you are meeting.

2. PUBLIC Arrange to meet somewhere public where there are a lot of other people. This could be a local shopping centre or café.

3. TAKE Take a friend with you. They can stay with you until you feel it is safe. They can stay close by or at a distance just to make sure you are ok.

4. KNOW Know how to get away quickly if the person is not who they say they are. Tell the person going with you if you feel uncomfortable or want to leave.

5. CHECK You can make yourself safer by checking if the person is who they say they are. Do this BEFORE you meet with them. You can even do this using a video chat program like Facetime or Skype. Checking via a video chat can be useful, there are many different video chat apps and programs that could be used.

Checking You can check that they are who they say they are! Checking using video chat means you can know what a person looks like. You can check that they are who they say they are!

If they have lied to you. about who they are you If they have lied to you about who they are you should not meet up with them.

Checking If someone gets angry or upset when you ask to video chat with them, they might not be who they say they are.

If the person on the video chat. is not who they say they are, If the person on the video chat is not who they say they are, close the chat immediately.

Remember… You may not know the truth about someone you first meet online. You can’t really know the person if you have not talked to them in real life. It is easy to lie and pretend to be someone online.

Kacie Rene Woody was a typical 13-year-old girl Kacie Rene Woody was a typical 13-year-old girl. She was a good student, a member of the school band and liked going online. Kacie met 18 year old David Fagan in a chat room for teens. She didn’t doubt his identity because the picture posted in David’s profile was of a brown hair, blue eye teenage boy, she thought that he was a cute guy. What Kacie didn’t know was that David Fagan didn’t really exist. She was really talking to 47 year old David Fuller. He had used a photo of a nephew in his profile. Fuller was an Internet predator who had set his sights on Kacie. She made the fatal mistake of sharing personal information with him. Fuller tracked Kacie from his home in San Diego, California to the small town in Arkansas where she lived. He abducted and then killed her before committing suicide. Remember: Predators will use information to gain trust and friendship - When Kacie told Fuller about witnessing her mother’s death in a traffic accident, Fuller told Kacie that he had an aunt that lived in Arkansas who had also been in a traffic accident, was in a coma and expected to die soon. This is one way he established a bond of trust and friendship. Unless you know someone in person, you don’t really know who they are on the Internet. Fuller portrayed himself as 18 years old and Kacie believed him. Anyone is vulnerable - Kacie’s father was a police officer and she lived in small town, but once she logged onto the Internet, she was no longer just a part of the small community she lived in – she was part of a huge online world of millions (billions) of people! People can use information taken from people to gain trust and friendship. Unless you know someone in person, you don’t really know who they are on the Internet This man pretended to be an 18 year old guy when he made friends with a girl online. 15

What does this advert mean? What is it trying to tell us about going online?

Warning Signs If someone tries to: Isolate you from your family or friends. Tells you to keep secrets.

Sends inappropriate messages & photos. Says things that makes you feel uncomfortable. Gets angry or threatens you online.

Remember… You can meet anyone, from anywhere online!

Compare the Internet to a place you know: your neighbourhood. Can you think of any examples where you live? Places you feel safe? Places you don’t/like to avoid?

In your neighbourhood, some areas are safe, and some you should avoid.

In your neighbourhood, you will know many of the people you meet In your neighbourhood, you will know many of the people you meet. You still have some rules, such as ‘be careful about talking to strangers’. This is important because:

On Internet, you are alone with people you do not know On Internet, you are alone with people you do not know. People can be who they really are, or they can pretend to be people they are not.

Some people disguise how old they are, or what their gender is.

It is hard to know who you will meet or what information you may come across. That is why it is a good idea to be careful about where you spend time and what you do online!

Remember… If you have made an online friend, you need to know who they are before you meet them in real life. Never meet someone you do not properly know

Always meet in a public place. Take someone you can trust along. If you feel uncomfortable, leave right away.