Online dating can be a fun and certainly a rewarding experience for women of all ages. Maintaining your safety while doing it is simply a combination of using common sense and exercising good judgment. Online safety rules are the same as real world safety rules.
You wouldn't give your name, address and phone number to a strange man that you met in a bar or on the street so you should never do that online either. Play it safe. Get to know this man who could turn out to be Prince Charming before you give out any information that could make it possible for him or others to trace you. Don't tell a stranger exactly where you work. Say that you are a legal secretary (if that's what you are) for a mid-sized law firm....not that you work for Brown, Smith and Jones Attorneys-at-law. It is safe to tell him what city you live in but you should wait to be any more specific than that until you have been chatting and exchanging emails for awhile.
Use only the tools provided by the dating service you belong to. Most offer chat and private email on their site. Do not give out your isp email address. If you must give out an email address make it a free one such as Hotmail or Yahoo.
Your isp address is traceable for anyone who wants to go to the trouble.
When the time comes for you to have your first face-to-face, make that first meeting in a public place and during day light hours. Take a friend with you or arrange for one to cal you on your cel soon after the arranged meeting.
Remember...you ARE in control so do not let anyone pressure you into revealing more personal information than you are comfortable with revealing.
WHERE TO GO ON YOUR FIRST DATE
That is an age-old question. Cave men had it made. They firmly believed in kidnapping and taking their date to a filthy cave out in the middle of nowhere.
Those were what was known as the good old days. Now days first date destinations and plans are a little trickier. First let's cover where NOT to go on a first date.
The old standby of dinner and a movie is a really poor choice for a first date. How will you get to know the lady if you are sitting in a darkened theater with a movie being shown? If you choose the movie, there is probably going to be a lot of frantic car chases and a lot of blood involved. Neither are conducive to creating a memorable evening.
Also, don't take your date to your parent's house! She will know right away that you are a mama's boy and you will never see her again.
Don't take your date to a sleazy bar with a motel out back. You will scare the poor woman to death. She will jump out of the car and hitchhike back to town believing that she would be safer with a burly truck driver than with you. Now, some good first date ideas are:
Begin with a simple lunch or coffee date. You want to keep the date casual so suggesting meeting up for lunch or coffee can be a good start. This way, if the date didn't go so well, you can end the date there but if you enjoy each other company, you have the rest of the day to spend getting to know each other better.
Here are some ideas of where to go if the lunch or coffee date tells you"re there is some good chemistry happening:
If it is the season, an amusement park or a theme park is a good first date idea. It doesn't matter how old you are, we can all be big kids at heart. There"re so much you can do at amusement parks and theme parks that most likely you will forget about the dating pressure and just have fun.
Most well populated areas have an array of museums covering many different subjects. Visiting one that is dedicated to something that you have in common with the woman is another good first date idea.