As April showers bring our May Flowers, we wanted to cover a theme topic of discussion that raises it’s head often by many of our students and members in conversations. Into the next month we will cover Online Dating, the facts vs fiction behind this ever growing niche and how to safely enjoy it.

Safety First

Online dating can be fun. But don’t neglect safety and common sense when you try to hook up with a mate. At minimum, take caution in the following areas.
 

Protect Your Computer

Take care of your equipment and systems before you head out into the Internet realm. You need to have a firewall and anti-virus protection for your email and for when you search websites and interact online. At the bare minimum, you may want these two solutions that are offered at no charge to home computer users (i.e. not for commercial use):

Free Firewall Download: ZoneAlarm www.zonelabs.com
Free Anti-Virus Download: AVG Anti-Virus www.grisoft.com

* But there are others that can do more and come with a price tag I won’t go into them here.

Protect Yourself

Take care of yourself, too, by choosing appropriate dating sites. Seek and choose a reputable online dating service.  How? Begin by asking around with friends, neighbors, co-workers and others you may know who have tried online dating, and see which places they recommend. In addition, search “online dating services” and keep a notebook of their URLs or website links, the fees, rules and regulations, complete contact information of each and any other useful information that spikes your interest. Then compare each place.  Try only those places where you feel safe. Avoid the others. Many will let you sample them but place limits on commuication.

Keep in mind many Community sites like DanceToRomance can provide the same or similar features at no cost like profile creation, messaging, commenting, and sharing pictures with others with similar interests.

So take care. Arm your computer – and yourself- with the correct tools and knowledge!

Next: "Growing Online Dating Relationships"

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