Many people use social media sites to keep in touch with friends and family online. Talking to people you know online is something that we all do, however, people that you don’t know can also use social media platforms to become your “friend”. You may feel some pressure to have lots of “friends” online, however it’s easy for someone to pretend to be someone else on the internet and you could end up having conversations with people who may not be who they say they are.
Being online makes it easy for people to lie and pretend to be someone else. Some people use social media to make contact with children and young people with the intention of “grooming” them. Groomers might try to gain your trust by using a fake profile picture and by pretending to be your age or having similar interests to you.
