General Chat

A couple of days ago I started a thread claiming to be a fireman called Dave, who liked rugby and was single!.......As you can imagine the thread received a lot of attention !!!!! It was funny, I can't remember when I have laughed so much..........(especially at Strumps swooning all over the place......serious concerns over her health..lol)........ but it had a more serious side to it to. I have a daughter who is just getting to the age where she wants to spend time in chat rooms........like many parents I have warned her of the dangers of chat rooms, while she tells me how nice the people her friends have met in chat rooms are..........I felt that this was a safe place to show her how a short, fat, 50 year old disabled woman could turn into a fit firefighting, rugby playing single 36 year old man at the touch of a couple of buttons. We had a laugh and I got my point across............job done. Jan from Jarrow :)

Well done Jan, what a clever way to show your daughter the pitfalls of taking everything said on line, as gospel. I hope she will tell her friends too, and will always be careful - maybe you should find a pic of a fireman, label him Dave and stick him up by the computer, just to jog her memory. Donna has a calendar full of them lol

great way of getting your point across - my oldest isnt quite old enough for the chat rooms but it wont be long and to be honest it was a great laugh - dave sounded like every womans dream lmao well done you

Yes well done Jan, I knew Dave the Fireman was a hoax from the first posting, but that was me.. a 40 something married woman with 3 young daughters.. two being teenagers... My daughters on the other hand would probably have been taken in... Only the other day my hubby checked up on the goings on online and found a site one of my daughters belonged to, a seemingly harmless chat site where you can ' tag' people to your friends list.. only to find a bloke had ' tagged ' our daughter to his list ( all showing with photos).. when we looked into his profile we found he was aged 42 and from germany... and his whole list of friends consited of young girls like my daughter.. ( she had no idea)... hubby straight away reported him to the site owners and also the police special unit set up for this very purpose... We have our Pc downstairs where we can moniter what is going on... yet still this managed to slip by us for a couple of days before us finding out.. we also have a laptop, but the gilrs are not allowed to use it in their bedrooms now... after this incident.. its not always the children who gullibley (sp) go into these sites.. as we have found.. these sick individuals can also seek out young girls without their knowledge at first on some sites.. very worrying indeed!

What a good way to show them... I was taken in by 'Dave' (and Im not a teeanger any more - unfortunately.) I may show my practicing teenager this thread and get the point across. Unfortunately he is much more of a whizz on the pc than I ever will be so its a bit scary when they could always be one step ahead. Thanks for this Jan, it has highlighted a very real problem for us all. Clare x

Brilliant idea Jan......well done really good way of showing her how dangerous chat rooms can be......especially to the young and vonrable. Gwyn xxx

what a good idea! hope it worked in the long run. thought he was too good to be true! young fit AND single, nice to day dream though! i wonder about sean, was he real? oh well back to real world. tina x

A very clever idea, well done. Lin x

Hi Jan, yes it was a very good point you put across, and sadly very topical. Could I cheekily ask that you keep this particular thread up for a couple of days, please, so that I can show our children exactly what can happen? I was planning to show them the Dave The Fireman thread to begin with (and see daughter's reaction lol), then show them this one. They're 16 and 14. As both threads concerned are harmless it seems a perfect example of what could happen on other sites. If you're not comfortable with it, no offence taken! :-) x P.S. I'm logging off for a while, so see you all later. x

Jan....i only fainted the twice over Dave lol and once over Sean lol On a serious note, well done, more kids (and adults) need to be aware xx

Well done you had a brilliant idea Chris xx

well done jan ,i was having a terrible day and you made me laugh,hope you got your point across .

Thanks everyone Strump, have you got a photo of a fireman then?..............lol Jan x

Jan, ive got 12 photos of firemen, Mr December is to die for lol

It certainly demonstrated how easy it can be to take people in. Some seemed convinced Dave was real. I hope it also illustrates why some members are sometimes wary of newcomers, I have been criticised for this in the past but this shows why I am occasionally wary. Gwynne

Well done Jan:o)) must admit l was suspicious from the start - but how many youngsters may not have been, well the mind boggles. And well done to Our Em as well:o)) jude sarf wales :o)

Well done Jan, I quite got taken in myself, thought it too good to be true, but you never know who is reading the threads wanting to join but sitting on the side lines as they are too shy or nervous (as I remember I was) to take the plunge. So it could have been a shy Fireman (not many of those I know) but at least it showed he would have been VERY welcome, but also how easy it is to pretend to be someone you're not!! Have just had this discussion with my Son, as we are going to buy him his own computer this week and I have insisted he sits side by side with me where the comp desks are, just so I can keep an eye on things and know he is using the net safely. As you say, it is so easy to say anything on here and children can be too trusting!! That said, it was a great afternoon and I just fell about laughing when it was revealed to me you were the culprit, you ikkle tinker!!! lol Nanna-Moo ;-))

n chris xx

well done jan agood way of putting it across cant be to careful these days joyce from hollandxx

Well done jan, Caz xxx