What does 'safe' mean?

Former Member

Safe

It's a word we use a lot.
We want the boards to feel 'safe'. We want chat to feel 'safe'. Safety is a big priority for us and most other charities that run support spaces.

But what does it really mean?

Monday is National Safeguarding Day, which has got us thinking. We reckon that the word 'safe' probably means different things to different people, especially in a group space like TheSite. There are loads of words that we could use instead. For example, would you feel safe if you knew a place was non-judgmental? Or anonymous? How about anti-bullying?

So, here's a mini-challenge..!

Complete the sentence: To me, 'safe' means...

Former Member

It really can mean a lot of different things. To me personally, in order to feel safe I need to know things I've said aren't going to get passed around. Also like you said, non judgemental, and for this I think you need to be around people who understand how hard it can be to try and get help and also how what you see as a small problem could be huge to someone else so you really can't judge it..

Former Member

To me, 'safe' means there is no-risk of bullying or harm (mentally or physically), and in terms of TheSite more specifically 'safe' would mean that its a non-judgemental space, where I (and others) can openly share things that I can't even share offline- and knowing I wont be judged or put down and people will be respectful of each other.

Former Member

To be and feel safe to me means that i am in a non-judgmental and an environment which is supportive and no risk bullying and also happy knowing that what is said on here wont be spread and will be kept on here and knowing that i will not be in contact with any dodgy people who i believe could be a risk to me and that this is just an open supportive community with top notch confidentiality agreements and not to feel worried but to feel completely comfortable about coming on here.

Former Member

Being safe in an online community to me means that everyone is honest about the things which are going on, rather than making stuff up and just lying for the attention. It means the environment is friendly and if people have issues with each other they do not bring them up on the chats. I guess anonymity is a difficult one in regards to safety, for example I feel safer knowing that nobody knows who I am, but equally I feel on edge not knowing who other people are as they could be someone you're friends with or something. It means that nothing gets put on other sites such as twitter, what happens here stays here.

Former Member

Safe to me means open, non-judgemental, no conflict environment where I can talk about anything without fear of judgement, identification, isolation or bitching.

Former Member

Safe to me means, feeling like I can speak about things without being judged for feeling certain ways, also knowing it's confidential and wont be shared elsewhere. It also means having comfort and knowing I have a place I can talk about things.