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Are you sitting comfortably, warm and relaxed, possibly with a drink and snack, maybe even with some music playing. Well if you’re reading this and doing those things then you are potentially placing yourself in significant danger.
So now’s the point where you’re wondering what the hell I’m writing about, is it cholesterol, unhealthy lifestyles?
Nope, these things are health issues; I’m talking about actual, physical danger.
When you’re sat on your pc, crawling through the web, chatting to people who you may never have actually met you should always be on your guard, because you can’t ever be entirely sure of what is occurring.Virtual friends are in most cases actual strangers, with motives, lives and histories that you can only take their word for.
Take the tragic example of the couple, who used to run the now defunct warcentral.com. Joanna Whitton and Matthew Pyke conducted their entire social life online until Joanna attracted the attention of another young man named David Heiss.
Despite living in another country, across the English Channel and hundreds of miles away, Havid Heiss travelled over to the UK to stalk Joanna, and then later to kill her boyfriend Matthew. All because the lady, and her boyfriend said; “No”.
Now, I know most of you feel safe sat at home behind your desks, but just for a moment consider the truth of this. Much of who you are, and what you do is online, if you have a paypal or an ebay account, then your credit details are online, along with your home address.
Every time you log into a website or forum your i.p. is logged, this unique number identifies you as uniquely as your house or phone number, and it can easily, very, very easily be used to find your house number.
Do you own a website
Well that itself can be used to find you and you are legally responsible for everything on it under the laws of the country in which it is hosted.
So should you be worried?
Well that depends on what you get up to online, who you speak with regularly and what you communicate.
As human beings we are naturally inclined to forms relationships and friendly bonds with others with whom we share common interests and goals, and the charged atmosphere of a shared team game, especially one such as Left 4 Dead, where you actually depend on each other is guaranteed to encourage this.
However online you can’t be certain of exactly who you are speaking with and a picture is no guide to the truth of an individual. So as a little word of caution to all those who read this, especially younger gamers, never give out your home address, telephone number or school online.
You have a gaming nickname, use it and don’t reveal your given name unless the person you are speaking with has some form of existing and accepted public identity.
The most important thing to remember is that whilst you may form friendships with people from outside your physical, real life social environment, they may not be what they appear and you should never invest all of your hopes, dreams and emotions into someone who you have never met, or even place your entire life online in order for others to see it.
Even social networking websites such as Facebook have a privacy function allowing only friends and family to access your account. Steam allows you to make all your account details private should you need to and most chat programs have a blocking function, but these are only effective if you haven’t already revealed who you are.
The last thing to be aware of is that a lot of people don’t give any thought to the fact that the icon or name they are interacting with on their screen is in fact a living breathing human being, with hopes, fears and frailties. Because they are also sitting comfortably, it becomes very easy to de-personify whoever you are talking to, making them nothing more than pixels dancing on the screen for your amusement.
This social divorce is one small step along the path to becoming a sociopath and if you notice anything on that list that you recognise in yourself or others, then its not too late to change it! So be safe out there people, there are actually sharks in the virtual water and they are far more cunning, cold and manipulative than even they realise.
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