Police warn children over fake online profiles

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

Parents should promise children they will not punish them or cut their screen time for reporting an online stranger, a senior police officer has said.

Colonel Dr Osama Bahar, head of Hidd Police Station, said children must know they can tell their parents about messages or pictures from strangers without fearing punishment or losing time on their phones, tablets or games.

In a video message published on the Interior Ministry's media platforms, he asked parents to hand the device to their children after making that promise first.

"Tell your beautiful princess and your little man: 'I promise, as your father or mother, that I will stand by you and I will not punish you over any word or picture sent by a stranger,'" he said.

He also asked parents to promise that reporting such contact would not lead to less screen time.

Colonel Dr Bahar then addressed children directly.

"Any stranger you do not know, do not talk to them on any programme, any game or any app," he said.

If a stranger gets in touch, children should screenshot the messages and pictures, make no reply and show them to their parents.

Colonel Dr Bahar told the story of a boy in the United States who began talking online to someone he believed was a girl.

Those behind the account learnt which school he attended, where he lived and who his parents were. The boy also sent a picture of himself and received an inappropriate picture in return.

He later discovered that the account was being run by three men from another continent.

'Behind the picture of a pretty girl was a group of monsters who wanted to harm the boy in any way they could,' Colonel Dr Bahar said.

He said something bad later happened to the boy, but did not say what.

Colonel Dr Bahar urged children to think of themselves as brave and smart enough to refuse contact from strangers and tell their parents what had happened.

'A hero is someone who is not afraid, who screenshots everything a stranger sends, does not reply at all and tells his mother and father about anything he receives,' he said.