An important message for safety online (especially teenagers)

Hey guys, this is quite a serious message for anyone in this subreddit who is a teenager especially female, I've noticed on many of the sub Reddit I follow and also some sub reads that my patient follows there are posts that say "Do you want to be my friend, so I have someone to talk about X subject with" and some are asking particularly for teenagers, they tend to be on sub where teenage girls are likely to flock like K-pop, Taylor Swift, certain Anime, games subreddits and I worry possibly BL to, some of these can be truly harmless, but some can also be quite sinister so please be aware.

I know the moderators do a fantastic job but as someone who has a large proportion of her job safeguarding vulnerable people, i've seen some crazy things. Please do not automatically trust anyone you’re talking to you online. Do not sent pictures or any details about yourselves. The Internet can be a very scary place and I want all your wonderful people to be safe.

I can't talk too much about it, but let's just say I had a very vulnerable teenage female patient that was caught up by this exact method, and I feel the need to warn you guys, also parents if your kids are on the phone just be aware that this is something that's happening, just because the website can be safe and the subject can be wholesome. It doesn’t necessarily mean that there aren’t some bad actors in there.

But also this method is also being used to scam adults out of money as well, so please just be safe guys

I’ll be back tomorrow with a lot fluffy post, but just had to keep my professional nurse hat on today after my experience with a patient