Tips to Increase Your Profile Privacy and Safety While Dating Online

Starting Your Dating Journey

Navigating the world of dating whether you’re new to the scene, or you’ve come back to give it another shot can feel both exciting and sometimes tricky. With online dating and dating apps being a common way for young adults to meet people, it is important to increase your safety and privacy in these spaces.

Something to note - pick a dating app that you feel may allow you to enjoy the time you spend on there. Many dating apps have fun features that you can add to your profile that are aimed to make connections much smoother. While you’re searching for a dating app through the App Store or Google Play, you should be able to see what each app offers that helps to enhance and bring ease to your experience.

Once you’ve found the app for you it's time to start setting up your profile!

How to Create a Safer Profile

When it comes to creating a dating profile with safety and privacy in mind, there are some important things to keep in mind.

When you first set up your account, consider keeping your identity private. It is best to only use your first name or even a nickname if you prefer.

Try to use different pictures on the dating app than the ones that are on your social media profiles. This helps so that it is not as easy to connect you to your social media profiles. Also, consider not including your social media handle in your dating profile bio.

Many apps allow you to input as much or as little information about yourself as you want in your profile. Some may give you the option to include where you go to school, where you live, what you do for work & more.

When deciding what identifiable information you want to include in your profile, remember to only include what you are comfortable with sharing with the public. Please be mindful that there may be risks to sharing personally identifying information publicly. You should not feel pressured into sharing any information that you are not comfortable with putting out there. You can always wait to share any personal information.

Allow your profile to express your personality and communicate your boundaries.

Dating can be fun, and through the pictures, prompts, and even icons that many dating apps have, you can allow people to see who you are, what you’re into, and what your intentions may be.

When it comes to creating a safer dating profile, there are some important things to keep in mind.

Many apps will allow you to say whether you’re looking for a friend, something casual, or something serious. In the same way many apps also have icons that communicate if you are a smoker, if you drink or not, your religious views, political views, and so much more!

You should always feel comfortable to be upfront about your likes and dislikes. If someone makes you feel like you can’t share your thoughts, that may not be a supportive person.

Being upfront about your likes and dislikes on your profile helps make sure that you’re able to make better connections, allows the other person to get to know you better, and sets a foundation for what you are comfortable with.

Tell a trusted friend that you’re embarking on this journey! That way, if you get to the point where you’re ready to take the experience from the app to in-person, you have a trusted person in your corner that you can walk through this process with .

Visit eleven-24.org for more information.