Week 2: Safe Online — Strangers, Fake Friends, and Pressure

This lesson is educational information and is not legal advice. Laws vary by state. If you are in danger right now, call 911.

The lesson

Online, people are not always who they say they are. An adult who wants to get close to a kid will almost never start with anything that looks dangerous. It starts friendly. This week is about seeing the pattern early — because once you can name it, it loses its power over you.

Grooming — the pattern, step by step

Grooming is when an adult (or sometimes an older teen) slowly builds a kid's trust in order to use them. It usually looks like this:

1. The friendly stranger. Someone messages you — from a game, a group chat, social media, anywhere. They seem to like everything you like.
2. The fast friendship. Lots of attention, compliments, gifts (game currency, skins, money), "you're not like other kids, you're mature."
3. The secrets. "This is just between us." They ask you to move to a more private app, delete messages, or not tell adults.
4. The turn. They ask for photos, or send you photos, or push sexual talk, or ask to meet. If you sent anything, they may use it to threaten you: "Send more or I'll show everyone." That threat is a crime they are committing — it is called sextortion — and the blame is on them, never on you.

Any step of this pattern is a red flag — you do not have to wait for step 4. A real friend never needs you to hide them from every adult in your life.

The photo rule (this one matters)

Once a photo leaves your phone, you do not control it. It can be saved, copied, and shared in seconds, even from apps that say photos "disappear." So:

• Never send a photo of your body to anyone. Not to someone you "know," not to someone who sent one first, not under pressure, not as a joke.
• If someone asks, that request itself is the red flag. Stop, block, tell a trusted adult.
• If you already sent something: you are not ruined and you are not in trouble in this school's eyes. Tell a trusted adult quickly. If the person threatens you, that is sextortion — a crime against you. Adults and police deal with this constantly, and reporting early is how images get taken down and threats get stopped. The shame belongs to the person who asked and threatened — not to you.

Everyday online safety habits

• Private accounts. Keep profiles private; only accept people you actually know in real life.
• Location off. Turn off location sharing in apps and photos; don't post where you'll be.
• Personal details are private. Full name, school, address, routine — strangers don't need them.
• The screenshot rule: if you wouldn't want it on a screen in the school cafeteria, don't send it.
• Passwords are yours. Nobody legit — not a game company, not a "friend" — will ask for your password.
• Meeting up: never meet an online-only person in person. If you ever feel you must, that is exactly the moment to tell a trusted adult first. No exceptions is the safe rule.

If it already happened — the exact steps

1. Stop replying. Do not negotiate, do not send anything else, do not pay anything.
2. Save the evidence (screenshots of the threats and the account names) — then block and report the account in the app.
3. Tell a trusted adult today. Use your map from Week 1.
4. Adults can report to the CyberTipline: report.cybertip.org or 1-800-843-5678 (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children), and to police. There is also a free service called Take It Down (takeitdown.ncmec.org) that helps get images of minors removed from the internet.
5. Breathe. This happens to a lot of kids. The person counting on you staying silent is the predator. Telling is how you beat them.

Words to know — Week 2

• Grooming — when someone slowly builds a child's trust in order to use or harm them.
• Sextortion — threatening to share someone's private images unless they send more images or money. A crime committed by the person threatening.
• Predator — a person who targets children to harm or use them.
• Block / report — app tools that cut off contact and alert the platform about an account.
• Digital footprint — everything you post, send, and share online, which can be copied even after you delete it.

What would you do? — Week 2

The situation: In your favorite game, a player called "Storm" has been on your team for two weeks. Storm says she's 15, sends you game gifts, and tells you you're her best friend. Tonight Storm asks you to switch to a different chat app "so the team can't spy on us," and asks what school you go to.

Walk it through:

1. Name the pattern. Fast friendship, gifts, moving to a private app, asking for personal details (your school), secrecy from others — that is steps 1–3 of grooming, in order.
2. You don't have to accuse anyone. You don't owe Storm an explanation or a goodbye speech. Your safety does not need their permission.
3. Stop and block. Don't answer the school question. Block the account on the game and anywhere else.
4. Tell a trusted adult. Show them the messages. This is exactly what your trusted-adult map is for.
5. Notice the feeling. It can feel sad or embarrassing — Storm felt like a friend. That feeling is what the pattern is designed to create. Losing a "friend" who was never safe is a win, not a loss.

What you earned / what's next — Week 2

✅ Week 2 complete (quiz score 80% or higher): You can spot the grooming pattern step by step, you know the photo rule and why it matters, and you know the exact steps to take if someone pressures or threatens you online — including that the blame is never yours.

What's next: Week 3 — Bullying and Cyberbullying: what to do when it happens to you, and how to help a friend without making it worse.