- Barnardo’s launched Follow Me campaign to higlight social media dangers
- Wants to warn parents to be just as wary of strangers online as in real life
- Video shows man approach families asking if he can follow or befriend their kids
- Parents were universally horrified and once threatened to call the police
A thought-provoking social experiment by Barnardo’s showing a man going up to strangers and asking to be friends with their children highlights the dangers young people face from strangers online.
The UK charity’s Follow Me campaign video sees a man approach families on the street and in a shopping centre, asking: ‘Can I be friends with your kids?’
He asks another parent if he can follow his daughter, saying: ‘We live in the same area, I think we could be really good friends.’
Although he tried to persuade parents with the argument that they know the same people and share the same interests in football and music, they are all naturally horrified.
One father tells him: ‘You can’t be friends with my children it’s not appropriate.’
Another threatens to call the police, while a father tells him: ‘That is outrageous. I’m really uncomfortable.’
The video ends with the message: ‘You wouldn’t be OK with this in the real world. Find out how you can stop it happening online.’
One woman wanted to know how the stranger could possibly think about making friends with her son
The video sees a stranger approaching families in a shopping centre asking if he can befriend the children
Barnardo’s Chief Executive Javed Khan said the video had been produced to show parents that they need to be just as vigilant about their children meeting stranger online as in the real world.
‘We made this video because we know just how susceptible all children are to being groomed online and then being sexually abused offline,’ he said.
‘Children make friends very quickly with people they’ve only just met online. They don’t regard them as strangers, or see the risks they might pose.’
Research by Barnardo’s child sexual exploitation (CSE) services shows that two thirds of children they support were groomed online before meeting the person and being sexually abused.
One father was horrified when the stranger asked if he could follow his daughter
A father reacted with horror when the stranger said he’d been ‘following’ his son
The outraged father said he would call the police if he found out a stranger had contacted his children, a message the charity hopes parents will take on board when it comes to online activity