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Today I was spending my time, watching some "liminal spaces" on internet, and I saw something weird about the information of a room.

It mentions:

"Safe", "Unsecure"

enter image description here

I can't understand how something can be safe but not secure.

In my openion You should be safe in a area if that area is secure, so what's the diffrent?

I appreciate it if you can help me.

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    Have you looked up the words in a dictionary?
    – Stuart F
    Aug 31 at 18:30

3 Answers 3

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"Unsecure" means that something can be accessed at will. A "secure" area will have some form of access control, you can't just walk in.

"Safe" means there is no danger present.

An unlocked room with nothing dangerous inside could be considered unsecure yet safe. A locked room with a tiger in it could be considered secure and unsafe.

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  • In this use, "unsecure" is a synonym of "unsecured", right? I think I'm more used to seeing it with the "d".
    – Dan Getz
    Aug 31 at 18:53
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(I'm basing this on my experience in government, where these issues came up often. For example, when I worked in the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of International Aviation, we often dealt with safety and security issues of aircraft, airports, personnel, etc.)

When a distinction is made, "security" refers primarily to intentional actions (e.g., a cybercriminal trying to hack into an air traffic control system) while "safety" more often refers to unintentional events (e.g., a bird being sucked into an aircraft's engine). Note that this distinction isn't very strict and there is a lot of overlap between the terms.

In general usage, "safety" can refer to any threat to people while "security" is very rarely applied to unintentional actions. For example, a terrorist attacking a plane could be considered a threat to either the "safety" or "security" of the passengers while a lightning strike would normally be considered a "safety" issue but not a "security" issue.

In the context of a classroom, I'd imagine that "safe" meant that there was no unintentional threat (the smoke detector was working, there was no asbestos in the walls, etc.) whereas "unsecure" meant that there was a possibility of an intentional threat (the doors didn't lock, there was no security guard, etc.). Without more details, though, the meaning isn't entirely clear.

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In this case, the author is using "secure" in the sense of "held in place", as in "secured with a chain". (It should be "secured" rather than "secure" but I assume this is merely a mistake.)

The fictional "Backrooms" setting is an infinite series of branching corridors and rooms, all similar. The heading is indicating that this area of the Backrooms is safe, meaning there are no particular threats to life and safety there; and unsecured, meaning the doors are generally not locked or blocked.

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