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| Chatting on the web |
The web is a great place to be - you can find stuff you're interested in, get help with your homework, find out about all the latest games, and explore the world.
The web also lets you communicate with people from all around the world in online communities like chat rooms.
Chat rooms are a great way to speak with people - because you can find people who are interested in the same stuff as you are, and you can talk with people from different countries.
But like meeting people anywhere, you need to be careful of what kind of information you give to people when you chat with them online. Just as you would not give your name, address, or telephone number to a person you met walking down the street, you shouldn't give them to anyone when you're in a chat room.
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| Yahoo! Safety Tips |
Here are some tips to make sure you have a fun but safe time while you're surfing the web:
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- If you receive an email or chat message that makes you feel uncomfortable, don't respond to it. Just tell somebody you trust (offline) about the message and, again - don't respond to it.
- Talk to people in the offline world about what you do and who you meet on the web
- Remember, a chat room is a community and there is a way to behave in that community. The way to behave in a chat room is called "netiquette". People who are in a chat room follow special rules - for instance, if you TYPE IN CAPITALS this means you're shouting (and who likes being shouted at?!). For more information, check out some
netiquette guides.
- Don't believe everything you're told in a chat room. Most of the time (unless you have a webcam) people can't see what you look like so you could tell someone you were chatting with that you have long black hair and blue eyes, when really you have short blonde hair and brown eyes! Just like you can make up things about yourself, so can other people so don't believe everything you're told in a chat room.
- Don't give out personal information about yourself. Just like you would not give your phone number and address to someone you met walking down the street, you shouldn't give that information to someone you meet online.
- Sometimes people can use language that you may not be comfortable with. If this happens and it upsets you, the best thing to do is to leave the chat room straight away. Yahoo! Chat also lets you ignore some chatters, or you can set a filter so that rude words don’t appear on your screen.
- Report anyone who you think is not behaving correctly. If someone is hassling you in a chat room, don't put up with it! Let Yahoo! Chat know. Just click on the Help link you'll find in each chat room and go to the abuse section, or send a message from here.
- Email is another great way to communicate with friends and family around the world, and Yahoo! Mail lets you do that from any computer that is connected to the Internet. That means you can check your Yahoo! Mail from a computer at home, at school or at a friend's house. Sometimes you might receive "spam" mail, which is mail that is being sent to you from someone you don't know and you haven't asked for . The best thing to do about spam is to not respond to the mail. If you get a lot of spam mail from the same sender, tell your parents to let their ISP (internet service provider) know. If you get a message that makes you feel uncomfortable, let your parents or teacher know straight away.
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