Online Dating Safety - Seven First Date Safety Tips for Internet Daters

When it comes to online dating safety, no matter how much you think you've learned from a person's profile or how well you think you know them from email, instant message and phone conversations, you will not really know enough about that person to keep you safe until you have started dating them for awhile. Unlike the ways we used to meet - usually by meeting someone in our daily walk or activities and getting to know them before we even start seeing them as a love interest - internet dating brings a wide variety of very diverse people together very quickly and without the benefit of knowing anything about them accept what they want us to know in advance.
This being the case, it's important to take some common sense online dating safety precautions to protect yourself and your children from what could turn out to be a dangerously poor choice and instead insure that meeting and dating new people you found on an internet dating site is a fun, exciting and rewarding experience - that may even lead to true love!

Here are seven tips for online dating safety when you begin to date:

Online Dating Safety Tip 1. Always let someone know where you are going, when and with whom when first meeting a new person from the internet.

Remember that your date is really a virtual stranger, in spite of how well you may feel you know them from your initial email and phone conversations. Call a friend or family member and let them know the name of the person you're going to meet as well as the location and time of your meeting. Keep your cell phone on and with you. Do this until you know the person well enough to feel certain they are not a safety risk.

Online Dating Safety Tip 2. Drive yourself to your first few dates rather than allowing your suitor to pick you up at your home or workplace.

Until you've gotten to know your date, it's best to meet them at an agreed upon location for your date. This way you can keep both your home and work addresses private. If you find after a date or two that you have no interest, you won't need to worry about whether they will stalk you or show up to pester you. And you're left in the driver's seat as to deciding when to invite them to your home.

Online Dating Safety Tip 3. Don't even ride in the car with them for the first few dates.

Speaking of staying in the driver's seat - I know it's neither as romantic nor as chivalrous, but it's still better to take separate cars all the way to your date location for the first few dates. This way you are not stranded alone with someone who is still, after all, a relative stranger. You may be tempted to only heed part of this online dating safety advice and meet them somewhere where you then leave a car and go on to dinner or the theater in theirs. I can only highly recommend that you keep your first handful of dates simple and in places you can meet and retain your independence and safety. If your love interest is a quality individual, they won't be offended but, rather, should respect and support your initial caution.

Online Dating Safety Tip 4. Meet your date in public places with many people around for at least the first few dates.

So you know to drive yourself, but where to drive to? It's best to start off in a busy, open and very public place. I know, you may have already developed high hopes for this individual and even feel like you're ready for an evening of romance. But first meetings can change that very quickly. You may find yourself very disappointed should there be a lack of chemistry or they just don't measure up to the picture in their profile - or the picture in your head.

So keep your first date short and very public - A coffee shop or bookstore or spot in a mall, somewhere bright and bustling where you're not isolated or cornered in any way. This protects you physically and can also help protect both of your egos. Starting with great expectations on a first internet date can lead to greater disappointments, and if, on the off chance, you have happened upon a bad egg ... Even greater danger.

Online Dating Safety Tip 5. Don't give out any personal information in the first stages of dating.

This is a very important online dating safety tip throughout the initial dating process. Maintaining your privacy until you've truly gotten to know your new love interest is critical for keeping you and your children safe.

When you start seeing this new person, it's important to keep certain information about you and your children to yourself. For instance, not only should you keep from telling them your home and work address, but you should also be careful to not tell them, for instance, where your children go to school or where you all go to church or about other places you may frequent on a regular basis. This information can be hard to keep to yourself, but if this person turned out to be trouble, you wouldn't want them, for instance, to know where to find you on Wednesday nights or what school entrance you drop or pick up your children from each day. If this man or woman is a good and safe person and is right for you, you will be able to share these sorts of things down the road. But keep yourself and your kids safe and your mind at ease by holding back on these things in the first weeks of getting to know someone.

In fact, click here for an additional list of online dating safety tips.

Online Dating Safety Tip 6. Avoid going to your new friend's home or having him or her over to yours until you truly know them.

After enjoying a few promising dates with your new love interest, you may feel tempted to invite him or her over to your home or to accept an invitation to his or her place. However, this is seldom advisable for quite some time. While dinner and a movie may be the honest intention for both parties, it's easy for single adults to get carried away when alone. And if you're not truly ready for that "next level" or if it is against your value system to let it go there, this may be a situation you will regret finding yourself in. As a safety issue, you could be attacked. As an emotional issue, you may have painful regrets. And as a relationship issue, letting the physical get ahead of you can often put an end to a relationship that may have had a chance had it not gotten out of control. Much better to let the relationship grow spending lovely evenings together, taking day trips, talking on the phone, but keeping yourself out of tempting or even potentially dangerous situations until a true bond and a true relationship have been established and for the right reasons.

Online Dating Safety Tip 7. Delay introducing your children to your new love interest as well as to his or her children until you feel very confident that the relationship has potential.

It is never a good idea to introduce children to your dates in the early stages. First of all, their seeing you go on a parade of first and second dates is disruptive and confusing to them at best.

But it's a good idea to exercise great caution in deciding to introduce them to your new boyfriend or girlfriend even after you've been seeing them for quite some time and are beginning to feel there is long term potential there. Here's why: Consider that your children have already had their family severed. Perhaps they no longer get to see their father or their mother, except, perhaps on weekends or for short amounts of time in the summer. This has been heartbreaking enough for them already. But if you bring a new man or woman into their life and maybe even bring your new friend's children into their life, they develop ties to these people as well. Then, should your relationship not work out, your children will likely be heartbroken and confused over these losses, too. We all know the joys - and the sorrows - of dating and of breaking up. And it's one thing to put ourselves through that. But it is unfair and unnecessary to put our kids through it, too. If you find someone wonderful and the two of you have decided that you want to be together forever, then bring your children and your new love's children into the relationship. But demonstrate for them true love, consistency, responsibility and a real and secure relationship as best you can; Don't bring them on the set of the Dating Game. Remember, as a parent, you're not just dating for you, you're dating for your little family and the choices you make effect all of you.

By exercising these six simple online dating safety tips, you can help assure a safer and happier internet dating experience and enjoy the process of finding your last first date!