Hey guys. It's been a while since I've written a blog, and if you've known me for a while, you know that I only post about topics that haven't been done before, and the word count has to be over 1000 words. So, you're in for a long read. And sorry, no tl;dr. I don't do those.

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Now, as a moderator, I see many people every day, and also, many of those member’s faces. No, I do not stalk people, or ask them to send a picture of themselves to me. In fact, they are willingly showing their face to all of PlanetMinecraft and the internet. Now I see males and females of many ages, but what concerns me the most is the females aged 10-17 who have a ‘selfie’ as their avatar. This is very unsafe for everyone, as you could be targeted.

So, why do people do it? Honestly, I don’t know. We can only guess. It was a common thing for females to have ‘scene’ girls as their avatars, or even pictures of themselves as their avatars to attract males to their profiles. This was very common on PlanetMinecraft a year ago. I remember this one member in particular, who would always get her skins on the popular reel because she had a picture of herself (and it was a very revealing picture too) for her avatar. An article from The Daily Mail.co.uk about women sharing pictures of themselves on Facebook states “Women who base their self-worth on their appearance use Facebook to feel better about themselves, scientists believe.” They also state” Dr Stefanone said: 'Those whose self-esteem is based on public-based contingencies - such as others' approval, physical appearance and outdoing others in competition - were more involved in online photo sharing.” So, even though this study was more about Facebook, it can still be applied to PMC. But, this obviously doesn’t apply to every female on the site, and I’m not saying it does. And this blog isn’t just directed at females also. There are many males who I’ve seen putting themselves as their avatar. Another reason people could do it is because they feel it is safe enough to put their face on a site with over 1.3 million members on it, which is also open to the whole world. Newsflash, not everyone on PMC is as friendly as you think they are. There could be pedophiles out there or people who just want to give you hell.

Why shouldn’t you do it? Well, including the many dangers of the internet, it is also against the rules to give away personally identifiable information. Rule 3 (in the old rules, and somewhere in the new ones I cannot find it) states that you are not allowed to ask for personally identifiable information, or give it away. This includes your full name, your exact location, and an image of yourself. I’d also like to remind you that no moderator will ask you for any of this information, we are very concerned for the safety of our members, and this is why we have the rule in place. Now, I’m probably sounding like a mom now, but you can’t ignore the fact that even though PMC seems safe, you still don’t know who could be talking to you or looking at your profile. But, you are allowed to share your first name, age, general area (country and/or state if you feel comfortable) and your skype, steam, email, etc.

Now, I’ll keep this part short and sweet. Well, actually it isn’t that sweet. It’s actually a very bad, and horrifying topic. Pedophilia is bad, and it can be common on the internet. If you are a young boy or girl (it doesn’t matter), or even a teenager you can be targeted. Giving away your name, age, general location (country is alright, but city is a definite no) and an image of your face, it won’t be hard for someone to find you. Trust me, there are many cases where this has happened, and I don’t want to go into it because this is not a very pleasing topic for me, and seems a little taboo for PMC. If you have a Facebook too, and your profile is practically open for anyone to see, then you are pretty vulnerable. Once someone has all that information, they will find your Facebook, and they will find you. So, this is also just a little reminder to you if you have a Facebook (I don’t, I deleted mine over 2 years ago) please check your privacy settings. And if someone is asking you for personal information, or you have a bad feeling about them, do not hesitate to shoot a moderator a private message. We are here to help.

But not everyone is a pedophile! There are also some not-very-nice characters out there too. Now, you’ve all heard of cyber-bullying right? Of course you have, and there is a chance you have been cyber-bullied directly, or indirectly once in your life. Despite the potential damage of cyber bullying, it is alarmingly common among adolescents and teens. According to Cyber bullying statistics from the i-SAFE foundation, “over half of adolescents and teens have been bullied online, and about the same number have engaged in cyber bullying. More than 1 in 3 young people have experienced cyberthreats online, and over 25 percent of adolescents and teens have been bullied repeatedly through their cell phones or the Internet. Well over half of young people do not tell their parents when cyber bullying occurs.” But what does this have to do with giving away personal information? Well not only pedophiles can find out where you live, your phone number, etc. other people can do it too. If they find out information about you they could create rumours, or spread your phone number around to others for people to make incriminating calls to you and your family. You could be harassed, black mailed, and even hurt. But that does seem a little extreme… let’s stick with something we could all do, if we really wanted. If people had a picture of you, they could impersonate you, or even pick on you for it. You will not get along with everyone, and unfortunately, there will be people around who dislike you. But there is a way around that! If you are being bullied on PMC, you can report them, or tell a moderator if you are being bullied via PM or comments. You can also block users too. We do not take kindly to people who don’t want to be kind. And if the bullying gets a little more extreme, like if they start sending you incriminating calls, you can phone your local police station.

Together, what does this all mean? Well it means bad stuff can happen. I’m not forcing you to change your avatar if you do have it as an image of yourself, (and if you do, please tell me why in the comments, I’m actually quite curious) I hope I distilled fear in the backs of your minds, stirring up chaos and dark thoughts. Nah, I’m kidding. I’m just concerned for people’s safety, and I hope to convince them that it is not safe to have an image of yourself as your avatar. Please, be vigilant. And please, be safe. Just because you think it ‘won’t happen to you’ doesn't mean it can’t.