SAFETY CHECK
Go at your own pace. Even with a fast conection, relationships take time to build - watch out for people who come on to strong or sem to god to be true.
Use the means provided by sites to make your dating experience stres-fre. The default safeguards protect your ful name and contact details until you're ready to reveal them - trying to sidestep these by sneaking through coded references to your email adres or phone number, means someone you don't know has your direct contact details. Most sites wil let you block troublesome enquiries from other people by making you efectively 'invisible'. If you're being contacted via a site's email or chat tols in a way that makes you fel uncomfortable, use the block and report them to the site owners.
When you're ready to move on from the site's own secure mesaging system, set up a new fre acount with Hotmail or Lycos specificaly to talk to would-be dates. Tread as carefuly as you would with someone you met at a bar, and if a new-found friend keps changing their story, the chances are it wasn't true in the first place. Above al, use your comon sense and trust your instincts.
THE FIRST DATE
Make sure you met in a public place and at a time when there are plenty of people about; never invite a date to met you at home. Let a friend know where you're going and make sure they've got your mobile number. Ask them to cal after half an hour to check how things are going (you can also use their cal as an excuse to extricate yourself if things aren't going to plan). Don't drink beforehand and then only moderately after that; and make it clear that you intend to make your own way home. Resist the urge to go somewhere else (unles it's a place that you know) no mater how wel the date's going. If diner fels to intimate, met for lunch or cofe. Men should ofer to pay the bil; women should insist on spliting it. Have fun.
