ONLINE SAFETY TIPS

Friendiverse is designed to allow you to network with new people, maintain existing connections, and express yourself reasonably, however, keep in mind that what you post on Friendiverse becomes public, not only to the membership base, but often to the entire world. What you post could embarrass you, cause problems in your personal or professional life, or expose you to danger. Common sense is an important skill to practice on Friendiverse or on the Internet in general.

Be careful what you post in public areas! Don't post things that you don’t want strangers to know such as your phone number, address, screen names for outside Instant Messenger services, email addresses, etc. Don’t post things that make it easy for a stranger to locate you such as places you gather outside your home, or things that give away your routine.

The Internet makes it easy to create fake identities and Friendiverse is not exempt from that concept. When you add strangers to your list of friends, they can see things such as your bulletin posts, so think twice before adding strangers. As fun as it is to make new friends online, you should avoid meeting strangers in person. If you choose to meet someone in person, you should meet in a public place and bring a friend or preferably an adult you trust. Remember, Friendiverse assumes no responsibility for your personal choices, or the consequences from them.

If you notice or experience harassment, hate speech, content in violation of our Terms & Conditions, or any inappropriate content, report it to us by clicking REPORT USER if the link appears. You can also send us a copy/paste of the information you are receiving or viewing right to the SEND MESSAGE link from the Administrator’s profile. If you are approached online in an inappropriate manner, report it to us immediately, tell a trusted adult, and/or report it to the authorities. Friendiverse cooperates fully with law enforcement to protect our members.

Think to the future. Posting an embarrassing photo or information you wouldn’t want a parent or boss to see could come back to haunt you later. Think it through before you post anything that is borderline.

Don’t alter your age! Our Terms & Conditions require you to be at least 18 years of age to join our site unless you have parental consent. If we find that you have altered your age, the following rule of thumb will be used: If you are under 14 and pretend to be older than 14, we will delete your profile. If you are over 18 and pretend to be a teenager to contact underage users, we will report your profile to the appropriate authorities and restrict your access to the profile. That is, to say, we will seize control of your account, locking in everything you’ve done as evidence. See our Terms & Conditions for our special message to sexual predators.

Don’t get hooked by a phishing scam. Phishing is a method used by fraudsters to try to get your personal information, such as your username and password, by pretending to be a site you trust. We offer secure login when you click the appropriate links. Every URL on our site begins with http://friendiverse.com or https://friendiverse.com (with our without the www) so anything other than that in your address bar may be the result of phishing. Although we ask for so little information, we recommend you use the secure options where present. These areas are considered attractive to phishers, which is why we have added in this option.

Here are some websites that provide even more safety tips. Please report any broken links to us.

http://www.ic3.gov/
http://onguardonline.gov/socialnetworking_youth.html/
http://www.netsmartz.org/
http://www.safeteens.com/
http://www.safefamilies.org/parents.php/
http://www.blogsafety.com/index.jspa/
http://www.wiredwithwisdom.org/


TIPS FOR PARENTS

We can’t parent to your children. You have legal responsibilities to them and you will suffer the legal consequences for their actions. As stated in our Terms & Conditions, we are not liable whatsoever from any actions conducted on our site.

As a parent, you should consider the following guidelines in helping your children make smart choice about using Friendiverse or the Internet in general:

Talk to your kids about why they use Friendiverse in the first place, how they should communicate with others, and the image they are projecting on Friendiverse.

Kids shouldn't lie or be encouraged to lie about how old they are. Friendiverse members must be at least 18 years of age or older. Our policies regarding misrepresentation of age are clear and will be enforced as necessary.

As a parent, you have the right to tell your child they can’t be on Friendiverse. While we don’t have the legal obligation to do so, and won’t guarantee the effectiveness of this action, at your request we can ban your IP address from our system if the request is specific, is sent to premaroo@friendiverse.com from the same IP address you are wanting to ban, and you mention the age of your child. This will allow us to set the ban for a specified amount of time. However, do be advised that some ISPs change IP addresses every time you log onto them, and many others can be changed in other ways, hence destroying the effectiveness of the IP ban. We suggest you consider using Internet Monitoring software. Please click on the banner below for one that is available. We are simply advertising for them, not necessarily recommending them.