Paedophiles pose as roads on social media to 'friend' school children

Paedophiles are setting up fake social media accounts pretending to be chicken nuggets, ice-cream, and even roads in order to “friend” Irish primary school children online.

They set up an account which would, to a child, seem to be an innocuous topic which they would see no reason not to “friend”. That then gives the paedophile access the child’s data, including pictures.

Maureen Griffin, a forensic psychologist and leading expert on social media safety, issued the warning and added that, as children have adapted so well on the dangers of stranger danger online, sex offenders have “come up with new and novel ways of gaining access to our children’s information”.