TruthScape.com  9  The Truth About Personal Health and Safety in RuneScape

Keeping Personal Information Private How to Handle Sexual Harassment, Racism and Other Serious Verbal Abuse

It is an extremely bad idea to agree to meet with anyone from RuneScape in real life. In fact, that's true of the entire Internet: you should not meet anyone in person whom you do not know based solely on what they tell you online.

The reason is simple: you have no way to know who the person really is. And that's true even if you've “known them” in the game for a long time; even if you are “friends” or “boyfriend and girlfriend”; even if you are in the same clan and so forth. There have been many cases of people lying to others for months or even years to trick them into a real life meeting, usually with a bad result. Heck, people on RuneScape get betrayed even by real life friends—do you think you can trust someone you've never even met?

This is one of the major reasons why, in the previous topic, I emphasized that you should keep personal information private. If a bad person knows where you live, this makes it easier to trick you into a real life meeting. For example, he could pretend to be a student at the same school you go to, when he really is not. Also remember that a boy or man can appear in game using a female character with a female name, and vice-versa (see Figure 77).

If anyone in RuneScape asks you to meet them in person, you should report them to Jagex immediately as indicated on this page on the RuneScape site. If you are a child, you should also tell your parents, who may wish to get the police involved, depending on the circumstances.

Finally, if you decide to ignore this advice and meet someone from RuneScape in real life, do not go alone. Taking a parent or other responsible adult family member with you is safer than going yourself. If you can't do that, you are making a bad choice. At least bring a friend (or two), and tell others when you are going and where you will be meeting the person. Bring a cell phone.

Keeping Personal Information Private How to Handle Sexual Harassment, Racism and Other Serious Verbal Abuse