You can message here, but not video chat. If you don't want to video chat, don't add them on Skype. :)

Mmmh, I think I got confused is okay too here. Besides this, it's not only Skype, if you speak with South East Asia WeChat and Line are also equally popular. Keep in mind teachers use external softwares too, for teaching, so it will happen with teachers too, if you plan to have audio/video lessons.

What I see nowadays is hypercaution. It's nothing wrong with adding people to Skype or Telegram. Nothing happens. If you don't want video chat but nevertheless would like to train your pronunciation you can just send audio files. If you don't want to send audio files you can just use text message. The messenger on Italki is not the most comfortable one. And there are many ways to check if people are trustworthy or not.

"Why do people...." " ..I'm really confused" :)

Hi I ask people to add me to Skype so I can talk to them face to face which you cannot do on italki. Also, some people use zoom which is a similar tool. I hope this helps. All the best. Helen