We care about you
The mission of LatinConexiones is to build a community-oriented site where members can relax and enjoy their time meeting new friends, connecting with old friends, searching for that very special person and feel safe and comfortable during their visit. We constantly remind our members that safe practices and protection of privacy should be constant. As our community grows we will continue to use every available form of technology to safeguard and protect you and your information.
We strive to make meeting new people to be fun and exciting but sometimes abuse can make it very uncomfortable, or even scary. While our community will be filled with mostly good people there will be the occasional member with bad intentions. This article is to help you identify signs of an abusive person, what you can do in the event you encounter such a person and how to report it to us.
What is online abuse?
Online abuse occurs when someone uses technology, such as a smartphone, social media, a tracking app or another form of technology, to bully, threaten, harass and intimidate someone else. The most common type of abuse is a current or former partner purposefully embarrassing someone online. On dating sites, abuse can take the form of unwanted, repeated messages after a member has not responded to a show of interest or a previous unsolicited message.
Abuse can also occur after communication has been established with a new person of interest when pressure is applied to communicate off-site via private phone numbers, email addresses or a social site. This can be especially scary if the new relationship has only just begun. Sending unrequested explicit photos or videos and asking for nude photos or videos is called “sexting” and should be considered a very dangerous form of abuse. Please remember our discussion in the LatinConexiones Safety and Privacy blogs and how dangerous it can be for your photos to suddenly be seen throughout the internet.
The reason it occurs
Continuous pressure to learn your exact location is another form of abuse. Most dating sites request your Country and City for the location section of your profile. That should be enough information for interested members. Some sites use GeoLocation. LatinConexiones does not use geolocation as we feel it unnecessarily exposes our members privacy and safety. Abusers and stalkers have become very adept using geolocation to find their victims.
We feel that another form of abuse of dating site members is to abuse the trust and personal well being of member’s onsite information by making their information available to outsiders. LatinConexiones will not permit advertisers on the site as we are so concerned about protecting your privacy. Sharing your information without your consent is simply not right.
Abuse can be any pattern of behavior which may include verbal aggression intimidation, manipulation and humiliation which most often unfolds over time that aims to diminish another person’s sense of identity, dignity and self-worth, and which often results in anxiety. In short, abuse can be any behavior that makes you uncomfortable. Every relationship is different but there are things that abusive people have in common. They want power and control of their victims. That should be very scary in a newly developing relationship.
Whether they are new or established, healthy relationships have boundaries. You are responsible for establishing those boundaries and the other person is responsible for respecting them. In a new relationship the boundaries tend to be established as the relationship develops through continuous communication. If something bothers you in that process it is your responsibility to address it immediately. If your new person-of-interest is whom you hope; you will earn their respect.
Some behaviors to watch as the relationship develops:
- Sends a message admonishing you if you have not responded to a message in their timeliness.
- Sends an excessive amount of messages and then becomes angry if you do not respond to all of them.
- Expects you to be available anytime.
- Sends negative, insulting or intimidating messages.
- Messages you on other social sites if you have not responded to messages on LatinConexiones.
- Requests that you add a GPS tracking app to your phone.
- Sends unwanted or explicit photos or videos.
- Pressures you for sexual photos or videos.
- Comments that noticed you were on the LatinConexiones but did not respond to their open message.
- Makes any type of negative criticisms or insulting comments about you, your photos, your profile information or messages either directly to you or on other social media.
What you should do if you are a victim of abuse while on LatinConexiones:
- You should immediately block that member.
- You should use our “Report Abuse” feature and immediately let us know who is the perpetrator.
- You should save the abuser’s message and forward to us so we can take appropriate action.
Remember you do not deserve abuse and should not take it personally. Abuse is a sign of some imbalance in the other person and you should not have to endure their imbalance.
For more information about abuse please search the internet:
protect yourself online dating
