Online Friends

     If you use an online gaming or social media platform, you know about being able to friend people online. Anybody can send you a request and you can choose to accept or decline. You may only friend people you know in real life, or you may be one of those people that friends everybody. But is it really that safe? And are you making the right decision? Read on for more. 

    I play Roblox, and I only accept friend requests from people I know in real life. Why? Because Roblox has a chatting feature, in which you can only chat with your friends. Once, I was playing a game and chatting with this nice girl--you can chat with anybody in-game, but outside the game, only friends--and she sent me a friend request. I thought it would be okay to accept it. We started chatting out-of-game and it started off normally, but then she started asking me personal questions. "How old are you?" she said. I answered, because I was younger and didn't know any better. She replied saying, "I'm that same age!" which was kind of weird. Then she asked where I lived. I didn't want to tell her that. I told her my mother said I couldn't accept friend requests from people I didn't know and she got really angry. She constantly demanded, "Why???" even though I gave her the answer. It was odd. She even went so far as to tell me that I shouldn't listen to my mom. The girl told me that if I unfriended her she would be very mad. By that point, I just unfriended her and carried on. 

    She could've been an adult or teenager for all I'd known, trying to steal my personal information like that. 

    Here are some tips for what you should do if someone you don't know tries to contact you or talks to you online:

    1. If they sent you a request, decline it. If they ask why or try to pester you more, leave the game that you are in or stop using that app for a day or two. Some places don't have the option of requests, though, which puts you in a complicated position. 

    2. Block the person. Many online platforms have the option of blocking. When you block someone, they can't chat with you and you can't chat with them. It's a quick and simple solution. Important: Once a random person sent me an invite on Skype. Instead of texting them to tell them they have the wrong number, I blocked them right away. Don't text anyone back if you're not sure. 

    3. Confirm. Sometimes people online pretend to be someone you know in real life. Especially if that site has usernames for people instead of real names. They could claim to be your best friend, just on a different account. It's not good to trust that a lot of the time. Ask them questions you think only that friend would know. Like, "Who's your teacher in school?" or "What's my favorite color?" or even something more complicated, like, "What color are the walls of my bedroom?" If they are unable to answer or answer incorrectly, they probably aren't your friend. But sometimes they could be right with just a lucky guess. Ask two or three questions just to be sure. You might want to ask your friend in real life if she tried to text you from another account the other day. 

    4. Tell an adult or someone else you trust. If that person who contacted you said something mean or anything that makes you feel hurt, it's important to tell an adult. Sometimes you might want to keep the conversation to show your trusted person. Or take screenshots and save them. An adult might also be able to take proper action in a situation like this, such as if you keep getting requests from people you don't want to talk with. 

    5. Never give out personal information. They might ask, especially if they are a spearphisher! What's a spearphisher? You may have heard the term before. It's pronounced, speer-fish-er. As the name sounds like, they try to fish personal information out of you! Common examples are full names, ages and birthdays, addresses, credit card information, emails, phone numbers, and other things you want to keep private. If you accidentally give out too much information (don't worry, it happens!) tell an adult really quick. You can also give very broad answers to their questions, like if they ask, "Where do you live?" you can say, "On Earth." You can say you were born in the last 400 years. You can even lie and say, "I don't know my mom's phone number," or "I don't have my own email address." Sometimes answers like this can get people to stop bothering you. 

    If you are concerned about someone contacting you or have any more questions, talk to us! Comment on this post and we can help you find a solution. 

    Thanks so much for reading! Keep being kind to one another!