Online Dating: Safety Tips for the First Physical Date

By: Grace Alexander

If you are dipping into the pool of online dating, observe some safety tips for the first physical date. Anyone can present themselves in a favorable light online. You need to have time to get to know your date in a safe, secure environment before being alone with him, and you need to have a back-up plan to let you extricate yourself gracefully if things turn out to be different than expected.

Insist on meeting in a public place, such as a restaurant. If he is legitimate, he will understand your caution and not object to this request. You want to be in a place with other people (preferably sober people, which is why a bar is not a good idea).

Arrange your own transportation. You don't want to be dependent on your date when you don't know how things will go. Having your own car or a cab on call will give you independence.

Make sure someone knows where you are and who you are with. Arrange to have a friend call you soon after the beginning of your date, and work out an excuse you can use if you feel you need to leave. This lets you either reassure your fiend, or make an excuse and leave if the date turns out to not be what you expected or if you feel uneasy.

Visit the ladies room before the food and drinks arrive. You should never leave food or drink unattended on the table, as this gives an unscrupulous date the chance to tamper with them and could result in your beverage or plate being doctored with a drug designed to lower your inhibitions and make you do things you ordinarily wouldn't do.

Take it slow. Agreeing to go home or to a hotel with a virtual stranger is never a good idea. Again, if your date has only good intentions, he will understand and agree with your desire to get to know the real him better before making yourself vulnerable.

Meeting an online interest in person can be nerve-wracking, but if you follow the recommended safety tips for a first physical date, you can relax and enjoy getting to know your date in person. Never allow yourself to be pressured into anything that makes you uncomfortable. In time, after you really get to know the man you met online, you may find he is exactly as he represented himself and that you really do have a connection. Then you can feel comfortable taking things to the next level, just as you would with someone you met in a more traditional fashion.

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