The world is hardly a safe place to live in at the moment. With all sorts of violent crimes happening on a daily basis, the news is always full of rapes, fraud and attacks. This is hardly painting a great picture but you do hear of plenty of problems, especially as some of them are linked to online dating sites. However, not all online dating sites are unsafe, and you can help to protect yourself as well.

You should only ever use secure online dating sites. Those that offer assurances and are backed up by secure payment systems are always the best option. You can check this in the information given on the site itself as well as via the payment system. For example, the web address of the online dating site will be displayed as beginning with https:// rather than http://. There will also be a small lock appear in the frame of your browser. This ensures that your payment details will remain secure. In terms of your own personal details, good dating sites will ask you for your details in order to verify that you are in fact human but will also allow you to choose what you reveal and what you do not.

You can also guard your personal details when using online dating sites by following these suggestions:

1. Never reveal your phone number – This is a recipe for disaster and plenty of crank calls. The safest way to communicate when online dating is via the site itself or via email. Never give your number to someone until after you meet him or her for the first time.
2. Never reveal where you live – Again, this is a recipe for disaster. When you do arrange a date, both of you should make arrangements to get there yourself. As such, you have no need to reveal your home address until you get to know your date well.
3. Choose your picture very carefully – It should not reveal anything about you or your home. You should not feature any expensive personal possessions, the outside of your home, your car number plate or anything else that could make you a target. Online dating pictures may be seen by thousands so play it safe.
4. Never divulge your daily routine or a specific work location – Stalkers and potential attackers may well target people that they have found via online dating as a result of their workplace or places that are part of a daily routine (the gym for example). Do not reveal this information. Of course, this only happens in a minority of cases but the risk just is not worth it.
5. Always meet in a busy and public location – This is just basic offline and online dating safety. You do not know anything about your date when you meet them other than what they he or she has told you so just be careful. Your well being is the most important thing.

It’s been an age old problem for people in the UK dating game – should they aim to get someone they think is above them in terms of desirability or below them? It began back in the 18^th and 19^th Centuries when the gentry would gasp if a woman married below her own status and title, but not if a man did the same (because of course men could do what they liked)! It still applies today but is considered in another way – in terms of looks and intelligence.

I see UK dating discussions about this all the time and nothing anyone says will probably ever change the way we view the world because it’s ingrained, but believe me when I say that there’s no such thing as aiming higher or lower today. Love doesn’t discriminate against anyone on the UK dating scene. You can’t help whom you fall in love with. That person may be gorgeous and intelligent, or her/she may be neither. Either way, you’d have a spark.

In truth, we’re all equal and anyone discriminating against another because of looks or intelligence is just plain wrong and nobody should go into the UK dating scene thinking like that. If you do then the likelihood is that you’ll end up completely disappointed. Keep an open mind and you might just meet the man or woman of your dreams.