BDSM Safety in the Digital Age.

We all know Safe, Sane And Consensual As well as R.A.C.K. in terms of safe play and minimizing risk with BDSM activities, for Sub and Dominant Alike. It is very very important to understand these things to keep ourselves safe and protected.

What a lot of people don’t consider is, that here on the internet and in the digital age, there is a whole other level of protection needed. More so if you are constantly texting, skyping, and interacting with people through a digital medium.

let me give you an example – You meet someone on fetlife, and just want to chat, but the messaging system on Fet SUCKS so you give them your Cell Phone number to text you. Things go South and this person happens to be a bit unbalanced or obsessive.

Let me Use Myself as an example. a search pattern on myself with JUST my fet info (I hate cell phones) led me to my Throwaway reddit account, my World of Warcraft Characters, and in turn a search of some of those names would lead you to my vanilla youtube, vanilla Google+, and then to facebook and my Gtalk account. Now for stafety’s sake I’m not going to tell you how I did it, nor am I going to reveal how much I was able to dig up on my little fae, but it was….more than Alarming.

YOU are responsible for your online and Digital safety, use some common fucking sense in what you share with people. It’s Alarming what you can find with a phone number, landline or cellular. So some tips to protect yourself.

• Use a completely unrelated user name for kink/BDSM related things.
• DO NOT give out your cell phone number to people you don’t know very well.
• Keep your significant other (dom or sub) abreast of online contacts (or a trusted friend)
• DO NOT under any circumstances post pictures you have on facebook to fetlife or vice versa. (reverse image lookups can and will find these. if you do, change the file name before re posting them.)
• Do NOT Skype for “random encounters” your IP is visible, and people CAN track you.
• Read and Follow this advice for first meetings, for someone you’ve met online. (especially the safe call section)
• Use common sense when dealing with people, Perv their FL profile, if they seem sketchy, do NOT hesitate to message someone on their Friendslist about them.
• Most importantly – Take responsibility for your own safety, if you reveal too much, to fast you are just as at fault in compromising your own safety.

I may have said a few inflammatory things, but just because we’re into BDSM, and might be a dom, submissive, sissy, or S-type personality does not absolve us of protecting ourselves from outside threats. If you aren’t sure of something, ASK a friend, or whoever you may be under protection of…Even a mentor. Hell if you need to, Ask me. leave a comment here, or shoot me a PM on Fetlife…. Help keep yourself safe.

I’ve noticed an alarming trend of people not taking this responsibility over themselves, and something needed to be said, I hope some of this information helps someone, but most of all I hope it was all redundant because you know better already. ❤

Which leads me to another rant I have, which will be coming Monday.

until then, be safe, and regards,

 

Syn