Online Safety
The Mix
The Mix HQPosts: 2,600 Staff Team
Hey everyone,
Here at The Mix, we believe keeping yourself safe online is extremely important. We've put together a thread with some information and advice about what you can do to protect yourself online.
1. Don’t share personally identifiable information
It's important to keep any identifying information about yourself private (e.g. your full name, mobile number, email address, or physical address).
2. Check your privacy settings regularly
Social media sites often update their policies, meaning your privacy settings can change. Keep an eye on your privacy settings and check your accounts are on a setting you are comfortable with. With most social media sites, you can view your profile to see how it would display publicly. This is a useful way to check your profile isn’t showing anything you don’t want to be seen.
Be careful sharing your social media accounts with people you've met online and decline friend requests from anyone you don't know.
3. Take care when sharing pictures or videos of yourself
Be careful sending photos or videos of yourself to a stranger or someone you've met online. Once a photo or video is shared online, it can then be download and shared by anyone. As the saying goes: once something is shared online, you lose control of it.
4. Be cautious when taking conversations away from The Mix
It's important to be careful chatting with someone you've met online as they might not always be who they say they are.
As friendships here develop, members might contact each other via spaces outside of The Mix (e.g. social media or email). We wouldn’t want to stop relationships growing and developing outside of the community, but keep in mind the risks of taking these conversations away from The Mix.
If you choose to talk outside of The Mix, you’re also choosing to leave the safety and oversight that our moderation system provides. You should never feel pressured or obligated to chat somewhere else.
We believe it's important that support is provided in an open and moderated space, so we can help keep things as safe as possible.
Read our thread about helping each other here.
Read our articles about online grooming, cyberbullying and online safety.
5. Check what data is collected about you
Every website should have a privacy policy which lets you know what data is collected about you (e.g. email address, IP address). Check what data is collected about you before signing up to a website.
You can have a read of our privacy policy here.
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If you see something that makes you feel unsafe, uncomfortable, or worried, you should tell a trusted adult as soon as possible. If there's anything happening here at The Mix that you’re worried about or has made you feel uncomfortable, always send us a private message - we're here to keep the community safe. 
We hope you've found this thread helpful. If you have any other tips for keeping yourself safe online, share them below.
- Aife, Mike & Ed
Comments
Emotional manipulation in social media / messaging is a big thing nowadays too; but some people don't realise until it's too late. This is an aspect that's personal to me too, and I can say from experience that it's hard to realise you're being emotionally manipulated because you believe it's normal, and you don't spot the obvious signs until afterwards, when you've left the scene.
Not sure if these would fit into this thread specifically but I figured I'd mention them
I'm trying to get up, they're knocking me down.
Chewing me up, spitting me out.
Hey, hey, hey when I need to be saved,
You're making me strong, you're making me stand.
-Skillet, feel invincible.
Mike & the team
I'm trying to get up, they're knocking me down.
Chewing me up, spitting me out.
Hey, hey, hey when I need to be saved,
You're making me strong, you're making me stand.
-Skillet, feel invincible.