The online chat safety guide

Most chat conversations are pleasant, useful, and harmless. A small share are not. This guide collects the habits that keep regular users out of trouble and the warning signs that should make you slow down, log out, or report someone.

Protect your identity

The single most useful safety habit is to share less personal information than feels natural. Strangers who turn into friends online still start as strangers, and the things they ask for casually can be assembled into a profile that is hard to take back.

Things to keep private until you are sure

• Your full legal name, including middle name.
• Your home address, neighbourhood, or any photo with a clear house number or street sign.
• Your school, university, or workplace name combined with your real name.
• Your phone number and personal email address.
• Your bank, ID card, or NIC number.
• Photos of younger family members, especially in school uniform.

Choosing a safer profile

• Pick a nickname that does not reveal your full name or birth year.
• Use an avatar instead of your real photo when you start out, especially in public rooms.
• Keep your profile description vague enough that a hostile stranger cannot find you on social media in five minutes.
• Use a unique password for your chat account — one you do not use on email or banking.

Spot the scams

Online scams in chat rooms tend to follow a small number of scripts. Once you can recognise the pattern, the specific story stops being convincing.

Romance scams

A new contact is unusually attentive, says they live abroad, claims to be in the military, an oil rig worker, or a doctor in a war zone, and within a few weeks asks for money to pay a customs fee, a hospital bill, or a flight to come visit. They never quite manage to call on video. The story always escalates to an emergency.

Investment and crypto scams

A confident new friend explains how they have made steady profits trading crypto, foreign exchange, or stocks. They offer to walk you through it, send a link to a slick-looking platform, and help you make a small first profit. When you withdraw, it works. When you deposit a larger amount, withdrawals stop and the platform invents fees you have to pay first.

Job offers and gift cards

Someone offers you a remote job that pays well for very little work. The first task is to buy gift cards from a nearby shop and send them the codes "as a test of trust". Real employers do not pay this way. Real employers do not interview you in a chat room and never call.

Fake account recovery

A "friend" sends you a verification code and asks you to forward it because they are locked out. The code is actually for your own account, and forwarding it lets the attacker take it over. Never share verification codes received by SMS or email with anyone, even a friend.

Recognising grooming

Grooming is when an adult builds a manipulative relationship with a minor in order to abuse them. It happens in chat rooms more often than people like to think. Warning signs that an adult is grooming a young user include:

• Showering them with compliments, attention, and "I have never met anyone like you" messages early on.
• Asking the young person to move the conversation off the chat room into a private app where there is no moderation.
• Asking how old they are, then quickly saying "you're so mature for your age".
• Pushing for photos, video calls, or location information.
• Telling the young person to keep the friendship secret from parents, teachers, or other friends.
• Trying to introduce sexual topics gradually, framed as jokes, dares, or "tests".

If you see these patterns aimed at any user who appears young, please report it through the contact page with the offender's nickname, the room, and approximate time. Sexual content involving minors is a permanent ban offence and verified cases are reported to authorities.

Handling harassment

If another user is targeting you, you do not have to argue with them. The platform gives you several tools, and you can use them in any order:

1. Stop replying. Many low-effort harassers lose interest quickly when they get no reaction.
2. Use the "disallow" or block option on their profile so they cannot send you private messages.
3. Warn or report them through their profile or the contact page.
4. Take a break. Logging off for a day is a legitimate, healthy response. The chat will still be there tomorrow.
5. Save evidence if the abuse is serious. Screenshots with the user's nickname, the room name, and the time visible help moderators act on the report.

Device and account hygiene

Chat safety also depends on the device you log in from.

• Lock your phone and computer with a PIN or biometric. People who can pick up your phone can read every chat you are logged into.
• Log out when you use a friend's or public computer. Browser sessions can stay alive for weeks.
• Keep your browser and operating system updated. Most malware exploits old, patched vulnerabilities.
• Be cautious with file downloads and shortened links from strangers. When in doubt, do not click.
• Use a unique password for the chat account. A password manager remembers them so you do not have to.
• If your account behaves strangely — messages you did not send, settings you did not change — change your password and contact us.

Advice for parents and guardians

Children and teenagers use chat rooms whether or not their parents approve, and pretending otherwise tends to push them toward less supervised platforms. A few practical suggestions:

• Talk about online safety the same way you talk about road safety: as a normal life skill, not a punishment.
• Make sure your child knows they can come to you if a chat conversation makes them uncomfortable, even if they were "not supposed to be there".
• Encourage them to use a nickname, not a real name, and not to share photos of their school uniform or home.
• Explain that adults who ask them to keep a friendship secret are a red flag, not a compliment.
• If you believe your child is being targeted by an adult, save the messages, report through our contact page, and contact local police.