✅ Pre-date Safety Checklist

Before you agree

• Their profile has more than one photo, with at least one casual / non-staged shot.
• You have had a voice or video call before meeting in person.
• You have searched their name + city; nothing alarming has come up.
• You have a sense of why this person is single and what they're looking for.

Meeting

• Choose the venue yourself; don't accept theirs by default.
• First meeting is short — coffee or a single drink, not dinner.
• Meeting is during daylight or in a busy, well-lit area.
• Your phone is fully charged before you leave.
• A friend knows where you're meeting, with whom, and when you should be home.
• You have a pre-arranged check-in text time with that friend.

Transport & location

• You're getting there and back on your own — not in their car.
• You have not shared your home address.
• You have not posted live location on social media.
• The venue is one you'd be comfortable returning to alone.

Money & ID

• Bring only the cards / cash you'd be okay losing.
• Don't show your ID, passport, or full date of birth.
• Pay your own way at least once during the date to set the precedent.
• You have not sent money to this person in any form before meeting.

Exit & after

• You have a pre-agreed exit phrase to text your friend ('Is the cat still at the vet?').
• If anything feels wrong, you leave. You don't owe a polite explanation.
• If they ask where you live or insist on driving you home, you decline calmly.
• After the date, you share with your friend whether you got home okay.

The two items that matter most

If you only do two things from this list:

1. Get there and back on your own. Not in their car, not in their cab. Independent transport is the single biggest difference between a controllable situation and an uncontrollable one.
2. Pre-agree an exit cue with a friend. Something specific and a little weird — "Is the cat still at the vet?" — so it can't be confused with a real text. They reply with "Yes, you should come get them" and you have an immediate, plausible reason to leave.

Everything else is good practice. Those two are non-negotiable.