Teenage Online Chat Rooms

Chat Room Rules

Each teenage online chat room that you visit will have its own rules. The rules are established by the Webmaster and may or may not be enforced by chat room moderators. When you sign up as a member of a chat room community, be sure to read the rules of engagement before you participate. One way to see how a teenage chat room is run before you join is to visit as a guest. A guest can check out chat rooms without having to join as a member, but they rarely can actively participate in discussions. The benefit to visiting chat rooms as a guest is that you can see what topics are being discussed and what type of language is being used. If you find either offensive, you can simply walk away and find another chat room environment.

Chat Room Bullies

A common denominator in all chat room environments is the bully or spoiler. They seem to exist to ruin everyone's fun in a chat room. Perhaps they use language that is offensive, or they continue to discuss inappropriate topics, despite other visitors telling them to leave or to be quiet. While it may be impossible to rid all chat rooms of these invasive individuals, visitors don't have to give a bully the platform to spew their hatred. Ignoring the bully is the best defense since they hate being ignored. If you find yourself being bullied in a chat room, ignore it and continue as if the bully wasn't even there. Engaging in a virtual shouting match won't serve you well, and it only makes the bully happy knowing that he or she is getting to you.

Chat Room Predators

A parent's worst nightmare is the chat room predator. These are people that hang out in chat rooms pretending that they are one of the crowd. Often they have adapted the teen lingo, are aware of text message shorthand, and are ready to engage you in a conversation. They'll try to be your buddy, tell you that they understand your problems, and make you feel special. This doesn't mean that there are some people out there that do want to be your friend. A predator doesn't really want to be your friend; what he or she wants is to discuss personal and often sexual topics with underage individuals.

For many predators, the ultimate goal is to gain your trust so they can actually meet with you in person, away from your parents or anyone that could protect you. For this reason, it is important that you never give out personal information to anyone you don't know. Never go into a private chat room with strangers. If you do, and the person brings up topics that are inappropriate, get out of the chat room and report it to the moderator of the site. Don’t be a victim; walk away from strangers that want to know too much personal information about you. You wouldn't talk to a stranger on the street and give him or her personal information, so don't do it on the Internet either.

Safe Teenage Online Chat Rooms

Despite all of the pitfalls that can ruin teenage online chat rooms, there are still a lot of fun and safe chats out there. By visiting a variety of chat rooms, you can find ones moderated as well as chat groups geared to your particular interests. The following list of chat rooms can give you some fun places to hang out in a safe environment:

• 1 Teen Chat Place
• Chat X Planet
• Digital Teen Chat
• Chatalot
• Habbo