As with any relationship, online friendships take time to advance. There is so much information to be found online about everyone that sometimes it's difficult to know what the truth is and what is gossip. Much can be learned through sharing of ideas, experiences and photographs, but when you decide to add a friend to the inner circle of your online world, there are a few things you should process before allowing them to know more about your personal world.

Get detailed information about this friend, name, age, photo and additional contact information. Share your own information, but limit it to things that will not come back to bite you if this new friend isn't what he presumes to be.

If you meet this new friend in person, insist on meeting in a group setting in a public location. See how your new friend acts in this situation before moving on to the next level. Choose a place that is at least 20 miles from your home. Driving far away to meet them in a public place will protect you if they show signs of being a stalker.

Move slowly. Just as with any friendship, do not trust this person with your deepest darkest secrets upon the first discussion. Share small personal information and see how they handle it first.

Even if you are unable to spend personal time with the individual, if the desire for friendship is mutual, the individual will be responsive and will usually share some of his/her personal feelings with you too. Mutual values and lifestyles may play into the ability to grow relationships out of an already full schedule.

Internet friendships are completely different from a typical relationship. Since you aren't actually talking to this person in a face-to-face manner, you can have miscommunication problems. Typing the wrong thing can hurt your online relationship because they may interpret it a different way.

Internet friendships must be approached with caution. Not everyone you meet online is who they say they are. Online predators are everywhere and they are excellent liars. When it comes to making online friendships, be weary about the friends that start asking for a lot of personal information. This should be a red flag that something is wrong. Of course giving out your name is one thing by giving your address, social security number, and credit card information is another. Internet predators may send you email files with "picture" attachments. Be careful about opening the email because there have been some cases where people lost all of their personal information due to a tracking program that was installed on their computer.

One of the great things about developing internet friendships is that they come with some mystery. You don't really know this person and it's exciting to figure them out. You can play online games with them and it can help to build your self-esteem if you are a homebody without a lot of friends. Making friends online is a great way to meet people in other countries and expand your knowledge of the world. Internet friendships provide you with a great way to expand your social network and give you are greater sense of well-being.