Stay safe online; be careful of all people including autistics. People who are friendly and helpful are not always good. Autistics can also partner non-autistics with good social skills to do bad things together.
Inform a network administrator if any group member or unknown stranger invites you to join their chat groups by private message. If they have nothing to hide, they would have sought permission and posted their invitation in the public chat group.
Inform a trusted adult (e.g. parent, social worker, counsellor, therapist, teacher) as soon as possible if anyone:
invites you to their home, hotel or any private location to be alone with them
sends you pictures of private parts or naked people
sends you videos of people doing things with their private parts
sends you stories of people doing things with their private parts
tries to talk to you about what you do with your private parts
keeps trying to talk to you about what sex is like
offers to give you free massages
asks you to meet them, and when you refuse, offers to pay for your transport or give you money/gifts
asks you to join private chat groups where they discuss private parts and sex related topics
asks you to take photos or videos of yourself naked or doing something embarrassing
asks you to hit, hurt or harm yourself
asks you to hit, hurt or harm other people
asks you not to tell your family members about something they have done to you
asks you to reveal your private and personal information (e.g. NRIC, home address, the school you attend, your bank account details)
asks you to transfer money to them
asks you to follow their instructions because they are in authority (e.g. police, customs officer, government officers, bank employees)
We have also found the following types of suspicious behaviours in some participants who claim to be autistic but can use advanced social skills:
1) Unable to explain or describe what is autism.
2) Describes experiences that are quite impossible for autistics to experience, such as travelling alone to third world countries to buy art pieces to resell in first world countries.
3) Is constantly able to find time to chat with autistics, as if counselling autistics is his full-time job. Always being friendly and approachable to everyone, never getting emotional, staying politically correct. Whenever anyone complains about life being horrible to them, he replies with caring sentences like “need a listening ear?” and directs them to private message him. However, he usually ignores female autistics and autistics outside of Singapore with similar cries for help.
4) Frequently using private messages to give “feedback” on how to “improve” the communications skills of autistic participants. However, when others give him feedback on how to improve himself, he ignores them. This way, he exerts control over the entire group’s communications so nothing suspicious appears to the group administrators.
5) Always agreeing with anyone who tells him about their opinion as well as administrators’ instructions. He then does whatever he likes anyway. When he is confronted about his inappropriate behaviour, he attributes his actions to autistic traits, misunderstanding and incompetency.
6) When confronted with difficult questions, he responds with an ambiguous but friendly response (e.g. a smiley face). This way, no one knows what he truly thinks and wants. When pushed for a concrete answer, he stalls for time but never gets back to answering the question.
7) Baiting autistics to reveal personal and confidential information with vague suggestions like “I heard that something big happened yesterday”. Enthusiastic autistics will then rush to volunteer information that he wants to know, or he wants others to know, while he pretends to be innocent.
To any potential predator or cheat reading this: we know that you are out there and we have fortified our defences against you. If you try to attack our members, we will work with both the caregivers and the police to expose you and make you pay for your misdeeds.