7 online safety dating tips

1. Don't Share Your Full Name Unless After The First Date

Just as we have stated, giving out your name makes it easy for them to google about you. That will not help you in staying safe while you are dating online. Since you may want to sound authentic on your profile, you need to be careful and cautious about the personal information you reveal, making you googlable. Giving your online date your full names even before meeting gives them access to your background through the digital world.At least, wait until the first meetup.

2. Meet In Public Places

If you feel that your online date should be safe, imperatively, all first dates should then be in an open-air public place. There is nothing wrong with having a meet up just outside your neighbourhood. If you both get to hit it all off, then you will have a lot of time to chill and watch in future.

3. You Don't Drive? Take Public Transport

Hopefully, you must have heard about this before. Having your online date pick you up for your first meet up is risky. They will not only get to know your residence, but you will also be literally in a strange car. Even if it sounds environmentally conscious and romantic sharing a vehicle for safety on dating online, things are different. It is perfectly safe to either drive yourself off to your first date or take a public vehicle. Leave joint rides for the later dates.

4. Never send money or financial information to anyone

As part of safety precautions, you should never send money or share your financial information with anyone. Don't get tempted to opt for offers that look too good to be true. That may be a way to soliciting you into sending money. No sooner do you know it might be too late.

5. Alcohol & Drugs - Don't Overdo It

Get this. Alcohol will never assault anybody; it is people who do assault people. It is not easy to be aware and make sound decisions while drunk. You may not get to see what will happen after you are drunk. On your first meet up instead of drinking like you ate safe around them, just stick to a nerve-settling wine glass if at all you have to drink.

6. Don't Use Instagram/Facebook Pics In Your Profile

Using your Instagram profile photo in your dating profile seems harmless. That is not the case. One can run your profile picture through Google image searches on your pictures. They will then get complete information about who you are. Hence, no matter how high your Facebook game is lit, the photos you get to use on your online date profiles cannot be located anywhere else through internet searches. You can as well avoid the Tinder option that allows one to link their Instagram profiles.

7. Tell A Friend

Telling your buddies about the upcoming meet-up is a great idea. Not everything may play out as placed during your meetup. Before heading up to your date, text your close friends the address and name of your designated meeting place. You can as well share with them a link to your date's profile. That way, if anything goes wrong, at least your friends will have a clue from where to start when looking for you and when to do it. What we all anticipate is that nothing wrong happens. Knowing that your close friends know where you are will help you to relax. You will get to enjoy your dates more than you would have when nobody knows where you are.

Online dates being the thing for the future. Everybody is trying to give it a try. While doing it, your safety and peace of mind are key. It is no longer weird meeting online; hence online dating is a moment for you to enjoy yourself while meeting different people.