Social Safety Guidelines

Social ASL gives you several options to help you feel safe and secure:

• Who viewed my profile feature.Allows you to see who viewed your profile and how many times your profile pages were opened.
• Password-protection option. When uploading photos, you can choose whether to make them public or not. Photos can also be watermarked.
• Customizable profile status. You can protect your privacy by making your profile either Private or Public.
• Photo verification. We offer a photo verification feature where we check if uploaded photos belong to real site members. Verified profiles are marked by a blue checkmark.
• Private Virtual Gifts. Possibility to show/hide your virtual gifts on your Profile.
• Private groups option. Also a private group forum option. You can join free or by invitation only.

Despite these features, when using any social site, you must always take steps to ensure your own safety. There is only so much a social site can do to protect you, so you need to make sure to protect yourself.

Following the guidelines below will help you be more safe as you make connections, but be sure to keep your own safety in mind at all times and be diligent about what information you share and with whom.

• Make sure you are at least 18 years of age. You must be at least 18 years old to use Social ASL. This keeps you safe and ensures the safety of our members and the integrity of our memberships.
• Limit the personal details you share. Don't give out your address, where you work, places you normally go, your birthday, locations of family members, or other personal information so quickly. Also make sure to remove that information from any photos you post (including your license plate number). Wait until you are more comfortable with the person before sharing.
• Speak directly to a potential connection before meeting. We recommend chatting at least once over video chat before agreeing to meet in person.
• Use a Google Voice number. If you'd prefer not to share your real phone number just yet, you can get a free Google Voice number to share instead.
• Report any requests for money. This is always a big red flag, so if any member makes a request for money, gift cards, or anything else of value, please report it to to us immediately.
• Do a Google search. It doesn't hurt to do a quick Google search on your potential connection's name, email address, and phone number before agreeing to meet. You can even upload their photo to images.google.com to do an image search on the web.
• Tell someone where you're going. When leaving to meet someone new, always tell someone where you are going and when you will be home. This can be a roommate, family member, friend, or someone else you trust. And make sure your phone is fully charged before you leave.
• Meet in a public place during the day. There is always more safety in crowd. Don't meet someone new in a remote location. It also doesn't hurt to carry pepper spray and know how to use it.
• Drive yourself. When meeting someone new, you should drive yourself or take public transportation instead of carpooling. This way, you can keep your address secret for now and have control over where you go.
• Limit your alcohol consumption. When meeting someone new, it's important to be alert and always make sure you see your drink come directly from the bar or waitstaff.

We hope these guidelines help you as you make connections!