Teenage Chat

Teenage Chat Rules

Surfing the Internet and chatting on sites is the norm for many teenagers. Chat sites can be used to discuss school, relationships and for flirting. Unfortunately, many teens find themselves in trouble when in chat rooms. While the particular rules for each chat site are usually posted, there are a few unspoken rules that all teenagers should follow when visiting these sites.

Personal Information

When you give out personal information on a teenage chat site, you are giving out this information to anyone who views the site. This includes the people who are not visible to you, such as site monitors. Personal information is anything that can identify you, including the name of the school you attend. Never give out your name, address, phone number, email address, school name or particulars about local clubs you belong to on the Internet. Predators are everywhere, and they are just waiting for a naive teen to divulge this information.

Cyber Bullies

Let’s face it; cyber bullies are everywhere. A bully may be an acquaintance from school, your neighborhood or someone you have never met before. A cyber bully is a person that enjoys saying hurtful things or threatening people under the "protection" of the Internet. They say things online that they wouldn't have the courage to say to someone face to face.

If you find yourself being threatened or bullied while online, the answer is very simple. Walk away from the fight by exiting a chat room. There is nothing keeping you on the chat site. The bully only has power over you as long as you let them. If you keep the fight going by answering them or trying to defend yourself, it only gives them a reason to keep up the abuse. Don’t be a victim; ignore the abuser. You can also report teenage chat room abuse and bullying to the moderators of the site.

Online Predators

It is important for teens and preteens to understand that people who seem to be your friend online may not be who they say they are. Predators are people that are looking for any sign of weakness so they can victimize someone for their own gain. For teens, this is often an older person that wants to become a confidant so they can get a teen to let down his or her guard. A teen may think that if they chat with someone all of the time that they really know the person. An online predator may be a pedophile writing to a teen from their home or even an inmate from a prison. The bottom line: know who you are chatting with online.

The best way to protect yourself from online predators is to chat with people that you know in real life. The safest people to chat with are friends from school, church, or people you know.

Crossover Chat Sites

While there are many sites that are supposed to be teen-only sites, some chat sites are for adults too. It is important for teens to know that a lot of cross over activity occurs on chat sites with multiple chat rooms. Adults may check out the teenage chat rooms and pose as teens, even flirting with them. Once again, it is important to remember that you never really know who you are chatting with online.

Safe Chat Sites

While no chat site is 100 percent safe, there are some that have more safety features than others. The following sites are considered some of the safer moderated sites to chat with your friends online:

• 1 Teen Chat Place
• 800 Chat
• California Chat – for California teens
• Chat X Planet
• Teen Today – for UK teens
• Digital Teen Chat
• Chatalot – for Goths and Vampires
• Habbo – a unique virtual world chat site for teens
• The Palace - another virtual world chat site