Staying Safe Offline
This article is pending translation
A month ago I met one of my best mates face to face for the very first time after talking on Facebook for eight months, but I did it the right way.
I am a member of the Salvation Army and a friend had a friend from London who added me one day because we had one mutual friend with the same interests. He was also from the army.
A while after he added me, something happened which made us come in contact because that was the only way he could get in contact with Wrexham at the time.
We started just talking once a week, just catching up really, but then we really got to know each other and we enjoyed talking. It ended up with us talking every night. He was being so nice to me and too kind, which at first I thought, hang on, before I go any further I must check this guy out.
I knew he was in the army (well, he said that) so that's where I started. I went to my Salvation Army officers and asked them to find out, and they did. They came back with what I was hoping for, he is genuine, so that rested my mind. Also, the army know now that I am in contact with him. Always tell someone!
Anyway, it was my 21st and because we were good friends at the time I invited him to my party, an ideal way meet someone. The first thing I did was to tell my parents about him and tell the army’s officers about meeting him: what day, time and where, so that more than one person knew what I was doing.
I did also ask a friend to come with me to meet him but he let me down, so I was a little more nervous, but I knew a lot of people did know about it.
The time had come. The train came into platform one in Chester. He got off the train and it was all okay, after all that worrying and nerves, it was alright. I was fully aware about internet safety and meeting people on Facebook, but I did my research toughly and it all went to plan and about ten or more people knew about that meeting place and time.
Make sure you do the same!
IMAGE: transCam
