The mother of a 12-year-old girl said her daughter was left “upset and very shaken” after receiving a number of creepy messages on Instagram from a 16-year-old boy she did not know.
British mother Pauline Yau shared the messages and an explanation to Twitter as a warning to other parents about social media.
She said her daughter had a private Instagram account and had to ask her for permission before accepting any friend requests, but one day received a direct message out of the blue from a complete stranger.
1. This happened to my 12-yr old daughter on @instagram at the weekend. Yes, she’s below the age limit for Insta, you have to be 13 but all her friends use it. She uses it responsibly, has a private account and she has to ask me before she can accept any friend requests
— Pauline Yau (@paulineyau) March 5, 2019
Top Comments
That 16 year old boy is a little twat who I hope is charged with some sort of act of soliciting pornographic material from a young person.
Also, once again, that 12 year old girl shouldn't have been on IG, even though all her friends were on the app. I hope her mother deletes the account until she is of the proper age. Being on that app that young means that she has access to all sorts of content well beyond her maturity level to deal with, and, as we have seen above, has to deal with interactions with people that are also well beyond her maturity level to deal with.