Safety Tips for Everyone

World Wide Open is all about connecting with other people, churches and organizations, being empowered by relevant resources and making an impact through service opportunities. Here are some common tips to follow when using World Wide Open:

• Your account, postings and comments are public spaces. World Wide Open is not your living room – what you write or post can be seen by everyone and could come back to embarrass you, get you in trouble or expose you to danger. So, please don’t post something that you wouldn’t want your boss, mom or anyone else to see for that matter. Also, don’t post things that you wouldn’t want a stranger to know (e.g., phone number, address, email, specific location on Thursday nights, etc…).
• People lie. World Wide Open goes to great lengths to verify people’s information – but it is still possible for them to lie. People aren’t always who they say they are – they can make up an age, occupation or post a misleading picture. Exercise common sense! Use great caution when giving out personal information to someone on World Wide Open and use even more caution when meeting someone, whatever the reason, from World Wide Open. IF YOU’RE UNDER THE AGE OF 18, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR PARENT’S PERMISSION TO CONNECT WITH PEOPLE FROM THE SITE.

If you suspect you’ve encountered a person dangerous to the safety of the community on the site, immediately contact your local police department and then click here and fill out the contact form. You can also report Internet sexual predators at the National Center for Exploited and Missing Children’s cyber tipline (www.cybertipline.com).

• Report content that is against community rules. If you see content or behavior on the site that is inappropriate, offensive or illegal – do something about it! Immediately click the “flag as inappropriate” button and let us know, then respond with a posting.
• Tell the truth. This isn’t a dating site, this isn’t mySpace – so please don’t lie about your age or put up a false picture. If you don’t want to put up your age or a picture – that’s fine. But if you do, put up the truth. Anyone who posts misleading content will be permanently banned from the site.
• Create a Safe Screen Name
  1. Don’t use your name (first or last) in your screen name
  2. Don’t ever put any personally identifiable information in your screen name (phone number, social security number, bank account number)
• Create a Safe Password
  1. Choose a combination of letters and numbers.
  2. Don’t choose words that can be found in the dictionary (people use computer programs that reference the dictionary to steal passwords).
  3. Don’t ever put any personally identifiable information in your password (phone number, social security number, bank account number)
  4. Don’t tell anyone your password