The following are some basic, common sense safety tips to keep in mind when dating online. Follow these tips, and you should be perfectly fine and be able to enjoy all the benefits online dating has to offer.

Take the following safety precautions, and you'll make absolutely sure that you are not doing anything that could be dangerous.

Do not, under any circumstance reveal any personally identifiable information in your online dating profile, in your personal ads, or in your private e-mails to singles.

Such information includes your real name, specifics about where you live ("I live in London" is ok, though) or any other info that could be used maliciously or simply without your consent.

Use only the communications tools provided by your dating service. They now offer private e-mail, chat, and even instant messaging. You should not invite singles to e-mail you at your regular address, at least until you get to know them better. Use your judgement here.

When you e-mail singles in private, you may want to consider using an anonymous e-mail account at a free site such as Hotmail or Yahoo when you begin getting to know new people. Take your time to establish communication and move at your own pace.

Be careful with your signatures. Many of us use multiple signature lines for our personal and business e-mail correspondence that include our phone numbers and addresses. Obviously you'll want to leave this information out when first contacting any singles you meet through the personals.

Your best option might be opening an entirely new free e-mail account, to use just for your communications with singles you meet online.

Remember, you're in control. No one should ever pressure you into revealing anything about yourself that you want to keep private. Anyone who does is not respecting your boundaries, and is probably not worth contacting further.