Online dating is quite common these days and so are scams. But online friendships many a time turn out to be dangerous and when kids end up making such virtual relationships with strangers they meet via the internet!
One such alarming case has come to light in South Carolina where an 11-year-old boy left home to meet a stranger he met through photo-sharing application, Snapchat.
“He told the officer early Monday morning he had taken his brother’s car to go to Charleston where he wanted to live with “an unknown male he met on Snapchat,” police told CNN.
After driving for three hours, he lost the GPS signal on his father’s tablet that he was carrying. So, he couldn’t find the stranger’s address and approached the police van of the Charleston Police Department and informed them that he had lost his way.
The boy said he couldn’t recover the stranger’s address as Snapchat messages get automatically deleted once they are read. He also gave all the details about him including his father’s name, address and mobile number to the police correctly.
An investigation is underway to find the whereabouts of the stranger involved in the case.
“I would love tonight, right now, anybody who’s watching this, who is a parent of a child, especially an 11-year-old, to sit down with your 11-year-old, right now, right this moment and have a conversation about what you’re doing on social media, the dangers, the benefits, and things that as a parent we need to talk about every day,” Charleston Police Chief Luther T. Reynolds told CNN.
This case is certainly an alarming one for parents around the world. It reiterates why they should keep a check on their kids’ online activity. Protect your kids from online predators and the misuse of technology!