Dating For Online Beginners: Tips For Staying Safe Oklahoma State University

Make sure to have your own transportation to and from the date, ensuring you’re not reliant on your match for a ride. Online dating holds so much promise and many risks, but with the right tips, you can stay safe and get only the good sides. Below are some essential online dating tips for a safer online dating experience.

As we step into 2025, online dating continues to evolve with new trends and technology. Video-first dating, AI matchmaking, and niche dating communities are transforming the way people connect. Staying safe while navigating this digital landscape requires a combination of awareness, preparation, and vigilance.

Safest Dating Apps ( For Security, Data Privacy, And Quality

Stick to the well-known ones – they usually have better security and a bigger pool of potential matches. It’s like going to a popular café versus a shady bar — you want to be where the good vibes (and people) are! Doing a quick Google search or checking out reviews can help you pick a winner. If you want to meet someone from an online dating website or app, meet them in a public place and tell someone where you are going. Look at someone’s social media (like Facebook) before you meet them.

If someone asks for money on a dating app, do not send any funds. Listening to your gut can help you stay safe and avoid potentially harmful situations. If you feel uncomfortable at any point, step back and reassess the situation. Inform a friend about your plans, including your destination and your date’s profile details. This added layer of safety ensures someone knows your whereabouts.

When setting up your dating profile, use distinct photos that are not linked to your social media accounts. This prevents potential scammers from finding additional personal information about you. Additionally, avoid sharing live photos, as they often contain geolocation data that could compromise your location privacy.

If you don’t live in a big city, the app won’t be great for you—not because of any security issues, but because the concentration of users is high in big cities and super low anywhere else. Let’s start with the most important question of them all—is eHarmony safe? Well, first, eHarmony is known as the “#1 Trusted Dating App”, based on an eHarmony internal study. And while we normally wouldn’t give much bother to a self-acclaimed title, there is plenty that eHarmony does to prove to us that they live up to that claim. The dating app has been around for over 20 years and has only had one minor data breach that was all the way back in 2010 (over 10 years ago) and it didn’t affect any sensitive data. For those unfamiliar with data security, this is an impressive track record to be proud of.

• You’ll want to meet in a public place and ensure that people know where you are.
• Scammers and predators are very clever at taking details from your life and personality and using them to manipulate you.
• When you get to know someone better, you can connect with them on social media if you like.
• Matthew Seymour, an online dating expert at Healthy Framework, told me that it’s a good idea to look at your profile from a different perspective.

It may come through as a text from someone posing to be a dating app, such as Bumble or Hinge. You’d meet a potential suitor by happenstance (or be introduced by a friend), then exchange numbers and talk on the phone. While we’re on the topic of booze, it’s also not a great idea to drink more than one or two beverages while out with someone you don’t know very well.

Some online communities offer great insights and reviews for you to use to your advantage. For example, Reddit and Trustpilot are great places to go if you need to know about a potential dating site. However, it was not the first time a dating app broke privacy laws.

These identity thieves will, in turn, use your data to either commit crimes or take loans and other things in your name. You could incur financial ruin or a criminal record for stuff you had no hand in. Purchases through links on our pages may yield affiliate revenue for us. We review and list tools and products without bias, regardless of potential commissions. Prolonged contact online can also create a false sense of intimacy. You may think messaging someone online for three weeks is equivalent to spending that amount of time with them, but it’s really not the same thing.

New To Online Dating – Beginner Guide To Dating Apps

With a sea of dating sites and apps out there, picking the right one can be as confusing as choosing a Netflix show on a Saturday night. But you need to be careful and use online dating websites or apps safely. This could give an opportunist chance to steal from you or for a scammer to take photos of your personal information or credit cards etc. Or a sexual predator could look to see if something has your address on. Online dating requires patience, quality time and the ability to use good judgment and not ignore red flags. Being on apps because you are lonely or just broke up with someone and terrible reasons to use apps let alone date.

If you use the same photos on different platforms, that image can be reverse searched to expose those other accounts. The anonymity you would have gotten would be lost, and your personal information would be easily retrieved. Wait until you’ve had a proper chat on the app before you give out your phone number on dating apps or give access to your social media profiles. This maintains a safe and healthy boundary while you get to know the person better. It’s rare that you’d find a new dating app on a list of the safest dating apps, but it happens when the security and development teams go above and beyond. First of all, Higher Bond manually checks and verifies every single person who joins the app before they’re giving access to the site.

So it is no surprise that with so many strangers meeting strangers, the possibility of danger has increased exponentially.

Tips For A Safer Online Dating Experience

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that empowers people to choose how they live as they age. Make sure your cellphone battery is fully charged, experts say, in case you need to call someone for assistance. And always provide your own transportation to and from the date; don’t get into someone else’s car.

Many apps let you report harassment within the app and while apps do not notify others who reported them or who got them banned, it’s possible the other person can figure this out. This link provides information on how to block users and report users within the app. There is no need to exchange phone numbers or personal contact info with someone before the first date. Most people would view this as a safety precaution vs some weird social behavior. I hate to tell you but most first dates from online dating can be waste of time, it happens.

We encourage you to contact a licensed therapist or support service for any urgent or sensitive issues you are experiencing. We do not provide real-time or personalized support, and we will only provide responses to submissions if we can offer valuable, helpful, and topical answers. Do you have a burning question, personal story, or problem related to this topic? The more details you share, the better we can understand your situation and offer meaningful guidance.

Our experts also recommended waiting to exchange phone numbers or social media accounts before you meet in real life. In a military romance scam, someone will pose as a soldier with an entirely fake profile. They take their time talking on a dating site or app and claim that they’ve been deployed before there is time to meet in person.

It’s also recommended that you stay in a public place the entire time. Going back to your place or their place is inadvisable when you’re on a first date with a stranger. Even if you’re both just looking for casual sex, wait to get to know each other better before getting involved. Talk about what you’re looking for while you’re on the dating site. You don’t want to end up on a date where the other person expects you to sleep with them just because you haven’t clearly discussed your goals and intentions.

They help you learn from each interaction and stay aligned with your core values. Self-awareness in dating is about knowing who you are, what you want, and what you’re comfortable with. Establishing and respecting your boundaries is key to safe and fulfilling dating experiences. Online dating can give you a chance to meet people you would have never met otherwise, but it is important to be aware of the dangers, as well. Just download the app and pick a number to chat with your app matches; they won’t even know it’s not your actual number.

However, this information shouldn’t be available to anyone who looks at your profile. You might still end up on a bad date with a person who’s definitely not right for you. However, let this be the worst possible outcome of dating online. In addition to the tips above, be wary of anyone who flatters you excessively or moves too fast, who doesn’t seem to exist outside of a dating site, or whose life sounds like a soap opera.

Even if a person has a crisis, they will usually have someone to turn to other than the person that they haven’t even met in real life. So, don’t believe the stories that end with a request for financial assistance. Don’t reveal any information about your location either, whether it’s where you hang out, where you work, or where you live. And you should never give anyone your phone number to begin with—wait until you want to meet them in person and make sure that you can trust them.

Congratulations; we recommend you delete your account once you find what or who you seek. When you match with the right person and hit it off, deleting your account symbolizes an end to the search and keeps your private data off the app. With the risk of stalking that comes with online dating, you must protect yourself against it by all means. One way to do this is to run a comprehensive background check on your would-be date. Dating apps will let you report any accounts you suspect of inappropriate behavior.

Dealing with rejection in a respectful and dignified manner is crucial in the dating world. It’s about accepting the other person’s decision and moving forward positively. To learn more about the findings, check out our new 2025 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report. Streetwise Defence is a member of the British Combat Association and has Registered BCA Instructors. We are Level 5 trauma-trained, CPD-accredited and certified in safeguarding. If you don’t like them or want to leave, just make your excuses and go.

Plus, it adds an extra layer of safety, since you can confirm they are who they say they are. Building trust in safe online dating is crucial for a successful and secure experience. Based on our decade-long experience in the online dating industry, we have identified key strategies to help you navigate this digital landscape safely. If you report them then there’s more chance that they’ll get found out and removed from the online dating app.

What good is finding love or finding someone special if you have to put yourself in danger in the process? That’s why it’s incredibly important when looking for somewhere to date online you gravitate towards the safest dating apps. These are the apps the clearly invest in having your back and keep safe practices at the foreground of their decision making. To protect your personal information on dating apps, use the platform’s privacy settings to control who sees your profile.

You can do something independently while you check these online communities for reviews and feedback. These dating apps have privacy policies you can read up on and familiarize yourself with all the potential data they will be collecting and what they intend to do with them. Online dating is an amazing way to find your ideal match based upon what exactly you’re looking for. To maximize your chances of having the most fun possible, it’s good to be mindful of dating app safety.

To reinforce personal boundaries, first, determine where you want to draw lines. How long will you chat with someone before meeting them in person? Boundaries are highly personal, so find what works for you and hold firm.

Pictures also offer clues as to whether someone is catfishing – fake profiles will have images of celebrities or photos taken from stock photo sites. If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times—the best way to enjoy online dating is by keeping yourself safe, especially in a world where things like romance scams are on the rise. Always be cautious and report any suspicious behavior to the app. Many pig butchering scams start with a flirty DM and end with identity theft. For a closer look at the wild world of online dating, check out PCMag’s list of the best dating apps and video dating apps. We were BravoDate recently asked how to stay safe online dating and on dating apps, so here are our 21 tips for a safer online dating experience.

They might suddenly ask you for money because of a personal crisis. Your social media contains a lot of personal information that scammers or hackers can use to their advantage. So, make sure to keep your dating profile and your social media separate. It’s also thought that you’ll be safer on websites and apps which force you to pay for membership to join. This could be because we assume that scammers and other dangerous people aren’t likely to join a dating site they have to pay for.

You’ll want to ensure the app you’re using is utilizing proper end-to-end encryption. Determining the safest dating apps is a tall task, but an important one as safety is paramount when dating online. While those apps may be collecting lots of information in the background, romance scammers and other predators are in the foreground on these platforms, leading lonely hearts to ruin. With that in mind, I asked two online experts for online dating safety advice.