Moms and Dads: Are your children idiots?
There is a distinct possibility. Better check your paperwork from school, see if there's any warning notes in there.
Here's the thing. For some reason, over the last week, I've been the unwitting recipient of mis-dialed text messages from giddy tweens. In each case there was a series of indecipherable messages that I ignored for a while. Eventually, in each case, I finally sent back a text saying "U have the wrong number." In each case the child did not understand the meaning of that phrase and proceeded to explain how they have the correct number, the number is (such and such) and why don't I add them to the speed dial, etc. etc.
So in each case, not being sure what I was dealing with, and thinking that maybe it was me who was wrong about this being a wrong number, I sent a text that said "Who are you?" .... and in each case I got a text back saying the person's name, the town they live in, and the school they go to. It was like a POW giving name, rank, and serial number; "My name is Johnny and I live in Springfield and I go to the John Glenn Elementary School" or whatever.
OMG. I happen to not be a child predator, but if I was, I'd be on to something with these gullible kids! What I did, instead of requesting more information so that I could easily find them and use the old "my puppy is lost" trick to lure them into the conversion van or whatever, was to text them back a message saying "I don't know you, you don't know me, don't text me again."
The first kid texted me back with "ooops, sorry" and the second kid just stopped texting. I hope they both realize that they should not have given me their names and how to find them. All I wanted was a first name so I could check with my daughter to see if she knew them, or in the case of the second kid, who seemed to think initialy that I was "Johnny" and then that he was Johnny, I just needed to establish a baseline in reality of some sort.
Parents and guardians: Give your kids the basics. Tell them what to not tell other people, what information to not give to web sites, what to not text to those they don't know as well as those they know. And tell them about the puppy trick, just in case.
Because, even if your particular kid is not an idiot (and I'm sure your kid is a perfect genius) any kid can be an idiot any time. Temporary idiocy can strike without warning.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
Plausible and worrisome. Making it worse is this: I have heard of LEOs trolling the internets with messages like those, hoping to catch someone with not-nice intentions.
Aaaaah, calls to mind the good ol' "a/s/l" greeting of olde time chatrooms...
I was young, but I always answered "77/X/Galapagos". It got a chuckle out of most people, but a few were downright angry that I wouldn't tell them who and where I was.
One time, I remember an elementary school kid calling me a curly haired b**** when I went too close towards him. He was asking me where I lived. But I refused to tell him that for safety reasons and wanted that particular kid to go away and stop bothering me. Of course that was before the time kids were texting such things like that on their iPhones.
As long as you define 'child predator' as 'marketer' or 'phisher', sure. If you're talking about dangerous strangers, I'd say "not so much".
So ya, be suspicious and don't give out more info than you need to. AND DON'T USE THE EFFING THING WHILE DRIVING!
My sister and I weren't even allowed to wear those trendy (at the time, among children) necklaces with our names on them. I think this isn't just kids being stupid, it's also parents not teaching caution.
And never give them your credit card number
@pam - well I am sure that my credit card number 4530 2097 2304 2124 is reasonably safe because I have never texted it to a stranger. While driving.
@Rich: I agree, pre-teens should not be texting while they are driving.
This reminds me of an old Bill Cosby skit, the "Hey everyone! Come and look at my stupid kid!"