Hack78.Choose the Right Username to Avoid Being Harassed

Hack 78. Choose the Right Username to Avoid Being Harassed

Choosing the wrong Skype username can cause you a lot of aggravation, particularly if you are a woman. Follow these simple rules to make yourself a less likely target for harassment.

Works with: all versions of Skype.

This hack begins with a true story. After I'd been using Skype for about a year, I decided to set up a Skype account and username for my wife. For her Skype name, I chose the nickname by which she is known at work, which happens to include the word girl in it. Within four hours of setting up the name, she had received five authorization requests, all clearly from men, all clearly requesting some form of intimate communication (or worse), and from all over the world. I don't speak Finnish, Italian, or Dutch, but the two messages in English that accompanied the authorization requests were explicit. All of this occurred in the space of four hours, presumably because my wife's username included the word girl! In stark contrast, the previous year I had received only one unwanted request for authorization, and that request very obviously came from someone who clearly knew someone else with the same name.

In my mind, this quickly drove home the message that there are large numbers of men out therein the Skype communitywho do little else than search for Skype users having seductive female names. I'm not saying that these men are over-represented in the Skype community, only that they're there, just as they are in society.

Before working through a checklist of what makes for a good Skype username, let's first review the rules of constructing a valid Skype name. Such a name:

• Must be at least 6 characters in length and, at most, 32 characters

• Must start with a letter (digits [0 through 9] can be used anywhere, except as the first character)

• Cannot have any spaces or tabs

• Can include underscores (_), hyphens (-), periods (.), and commas (,)

• Cannot include the following characters: ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) [ ] { } + = | \ ~ ` : ; " ' < > ? /

If you want to avoid being harassed just because of the words used in your Skype name, you can follow this "recipe" of things to leave out of your Skype name:

What sex you are

Avoid jane_single_female.

What faith you are

Avoid muslim_jane.

Where you live

Avoid jane_branford_ct_usa.

How old you are

Avoid fourteen_year_old_jane.

What ethnicity you are

Avoid chinese_jane.

Where you work

Avoid jane_small_xyz_corp.

What you do

Avoid jane_the_physician.

How wealthy you are

Avoid loads_of_money_jane.

It's strange that something as simple as your Skype name can make you a target for harassment and ne'er-do-wells, but as my wife's experience proved, it most certainly can. Clearly, anyone can be a target if he's not careful about how he chooses his Skype name. As for me, I seem to be doing rather well using the Skype name grumpy_old_man_naff_off!

9.6.1. See Also

• To set up your privacy settings within Skype, see "Manage Your Skype Privacy Settings" [Hack #74].