I would really love some help and support.. My friend recommended a website. It's called omegle. at first I didn't know what it was. If was actually full of abuse and , inappropriate images. full of scary abusive luangage. It filled me with sadness and I'm freighted. It really scared me. Someone said they knew where I lived. It's freaking me out and making me stressed. Please help.
Sam
Hi there,
The internet is full of great things to see and have fun with, but there is also a lot of stuff that's dangerous or unpleasant. Knowing how to spot the warning signs and keep yourself safe is an important skill - and one that is mostly down to your own judgement.
How safe a website is can depend on a few different things.
If it's a website which doesn't change too often, like the Thinkuknow website for example, you can usually work out quite quickly if it's right for you. You'll probably know whether it's a safe website to be on from its look and feel. If you're ever unsure, it's best to be safe and close it. With a site like Omegle, however, it is much harder to know because you are dealing with real people, who may or may not be nice - and can be unpredictable.
Not all websites that let you talk to other people are bad. But they can be much more dangerous. It's not easy to predict how other people are going to behave and so your safety comes down to the safety features of that website. Both Omegle and Childline let you talk to other people online, but because we have lots of safety features in place, you can feel confident knowing you're safe here.
Childline's message boards let you talk to other people, a bit like Omegle does, but we check every message before it's posted to make sure it's safe - whereas Omegle doesn't.
Making a judgement about a website comes down to checking how a website works before you start to use it. One way of doing that is checking to see if the NSPCC has information about it on their Net Aware website.
Getting your parents to set some controls on your phone or computer can also be a good way to stop you accidentally seeing things you don't want to see. You can show them this page if they need help setting it up. You or your parents are also able to talk to the NSPCC-O2 Online Safety Helpline on 0808 800 5002 if you'd like more advice on staying safe, as well as being able to talk to a counsellor at Childline.
I hope that helps.
Take care,
Sam
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