A YouTube star's
chilling social experiment has revealed just how easy it is for predators to
use social media to lure unsuspecting children into meeting up with them.
Coby Persin, 23, from New York, created three fake Snapchat profiles and
struck up conversations with kids aged 12, 13, and 14 with their parents'
permission for his latest video exposing
the dangers of the internet.
Although the parents insisted that they have warned their
children about talking to strangers online, all three of the kids agreed to
meet with the person they had been conversing with on Snapchat when their
parents weren't around.
A father named Steve had appeared in one of Coby's previous videos, and after his daughter Mikayla was caught going to a park to meet a stranger she had been talking to online, he decided to see how his 13-year-old daughter Samantha would react in a similar situation.
Coby created a profile for a 15-year-old named Jackson and
chatted with Samantha for three days while pretending to be a teenager.
Steve monitored the conversations using parental
control monitoring software for cellphones, and he was shocked to see his
daughter invite 'Jackson' over to their house after he left.
'I am just hoping that she learns,' he said. 'I am just
having a hard time understanding what she's thinking.'
Coby had an actor — who doesn't look anything like Jackson
in the profile he created — knock on Samantha's door to see if she would still
answer.
'Who are you?' Samantha asked when she opened the door.
The guy claimed to be Jackson, and she quickly noted: 'You don't look like
Jackson.'
Steve was so angry that Samantha had opened the door for a
stranger that he burst in behind the actor and started yelling.
'Seriously Sam? This is not your friend,' he said. 'You
don't even know who this is. Come out here. Does that look like the same guy
you were talking to? Seriously, does that look like the same guy?'
Steve said they had already gone over this with her sister,
so he couldn't figure out why she would do something like this.
Samantha said she was just meeting a friend, but Coby
pointed out that she fell for the same exact scam her sister fell for.
Unsurprisingly, Steve took her phone away from her before he marched her into the house for a serious conversation about her actions.
Next up was Daniel, a 12-year-old boy who thought he was
talking to a 13-year-old girl named Jessy on Snapchat.
Daniel's mom hoped that her son would know better than to
try and meet Jessy at the basketball court like they had discussed in their
chats, but she had reservations that he would do the right thing.
Not only did Daniel show up to the meeting spot, he let Coby
escort him off the court and around the corner because he claimed to know where
Jessy was. Instead of meeting Jessy, he ended up finding his very angry
mother.
'Daniel you're kidding me right? Are you kidding me?' his
mom yelled. 'We set up a fake profile on Snapchat and you were stupid enough to
go and meet someone you don't know.'
His mom also found it suspicious that he was carrying a
backpack to meet the girl, and when she opened it, she found that he had stolen
a bottle of red wine from their house.
'You don't know better? Am I doing something wrong as a
parent? This could have ended a lot different,' she said before demanding that
Daniel give her his phone.
For the final social experiment, Coby connected with a
14-year-old girl named Sasha after creating a fake Snapchat profile for a
15-year-old boy named Jackson.
Coby explained to Sasha's mom that he had been speaking with
her for a couple of days, and her daughter had already suggested that they meet
in person.
Because he didn't have the house or cameras set up at the time, he stalled for a couple of days before inviting her over that night.
Although it appeared that Sasha was more than willing to meet
up with Jackson, her mom believed she wouldn't show up because they've had
discussed the dangers of speaking with strangers online many times
before.
Even after Sasha told Jackson she would 'be there in 10
minutes,' her mother had faith that she wouldn't show up.
Unfortunately, Sasha did show up, and when a stranger
answered the door, she let him lead her upstairs to an empty bedroom.
The person told Sasha to wait there while Jackson was in the
bathroom, and she did a quick look around before sitting down on the bed.
After the lights flickered off and on, Sasha turned around to see someone in a mask standing next to the bed.
When she screamed and tried to run out of the room, the
person grabbed her and took off the mask, revealing that it was her
mother.
'This could have gone a lot worse. Have I not taught you any
better?' the mom yelled. 'What are you doing there?'
Sasha could barely get a word in edgewise while her mom continued
to stress how much worse this could have been for her.
At the end of the clip, Sasha's mom gave her a big hug and
explained that she loved her and wanted her to do the right thing.
Culled from Daily Mail
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