Just watched a video of a 16 year old girl...meeting a guy who said he was 16 also...at a restaurant....the girl was shocked to find he was in his 40's.... he still was trying to sweet-talk her...she was getting upset...and luckily, a couple sitting close by was listening to the conversation....(an off-duty police officer & his wife).....so when the guy started trying to pull her arm to leave the restaurant with him...the couple intervened....and most likely, saved her life!
So far I haven't met a 300 lb bearded guy living in a basement and wielding an ax- at least not in person- yet.
It's as Annie said- you have to use your best judgement in determining if it is safe. And always meet in a public place. The very first person I ever met from online (the old Prodigy Deaf boards...) was over 20 years ago (!); I took a friend of mine who I already knew and met my online friend at Shoney's lol. It was fine. Over the years I've met quite a few since then. I lost contact with the first person (wish I knew what happened to them, HOH...) but many if not all of the others I've met I have known them for between 9 to 17 years (some from AOL lol). One has been a better friend to me than a so-called friend or two that I met in college over 30 years ago.
It is true there are bad experiences as noted above but for the most part if you follow the advice- meet in public places (same is true for newspaper personal ads lol), if you can take another friend, tell others where you are going, if you feel uncomfortable cut the meeting short (and if it escalates- block 'em online), there won't be too much of a problem.
So far I haven't met a 300 lb bearded guy living in a basement and wielding an ax- at least not in person- yet.
So, was it ok to meet that person? They weren't an ax murderer or anything ,were they.
I don't know, you kind of have to use your judgement about who to meet, and definitely meet in a public place with another person you do know.
No teenagers meeting older men, no way, ever!
I met this person who played with me on Sony PS3 games mostly gameshows and madden. We been friends for over 4 years and we shared each other on Facebook page
One friend met her husband via the old MS Comic Chat (It's pretty much dead now) and were married (sadly I think she either is filing for or has filed for divorce after 10 years due to other issues that came up a few years after they married).My partner and I are together for 17 years from Aol Deaf chat room! Two kids! <3