The document provides safety tips for using chat rooms, warning that live conversations cannot be taken back and personal information should not be shared. It recommends using nicknames and logging out if conversations become inappropriate or creepy. It then tells a story of a girl who met an untruthful 23-year-old in a chat room and was actually met by a 41-year-old pedophile in a hotel, highlighting the dangers of meeting strangers from chat rooms in person.

1. Chat Rooms
By Mr. Kirsch
© Elyssa R. Taunee W.

2. Chat Room Dangers
• Video

3. Chat Room Safety Tips
• Live – can’t take it back
• Don’t
– give out personal information
– meet people in person
– share actual location or future plans
• Choose a nickname
• Creepy feeling – Block!
• Topic turns inappropriate – Log Out!

4. Girl, Interrupted
• Katie Tarbox – 8th Grader
• Met “Mark” in chat room
– 23 yr. old college student
• Made her feel loved
• Met him in person in hotel
• Frank 41 year old pedophile

5. Works Cited
"Chat Room Safety Tips." Connect Safely . Tech Parenting Group, 2011. Web.
17 Oct. 2011. http://www.connectsafely.org/Safety-Tips/chat-room-safety-tips.
html .
Gannett News Service, Karen Thomas. "Girlhood, Interrupted." USA Today 19
Apr. 2000: 1D+. SIRS Researcher. Web. 12 Oct. 2011.