A random adult called my DD’s phone

[twosoups1972]

A unknown number rang on my 13 year old DD’s phone. She wasn’t in the room so I answered it.

It was an adult woman who said her name was ‘Karen’ who was talking about meeting up with dd and she knew DD’s name. I didn’t know what to say so I said I was DD’s mum and she apologised and said it was a wrong number.

I’m a bit freaked out that an adult has my DD’s number and knows her name. Advice please?

It’s probably a linked iTunes account. My son uses my account, so our contacts are all shared.

My DD is 13. Looking at my phonebook I have a lot of her friends on there. Some are from when they've called me for DD or DD has using their phone and I've stored their number, some are added there via SM syncing and the rest are because I've been given them for various reasons (like organising pick ups etc). It's not that crazy that a friends mum has her number.

Thank you, this is really helpful. I will definitely have a think about Tik Tok, I thought I was a responsible parent when it comes to SM but this is clearly something I need to re-look at. The problem is, it is SO popular among this age group, I don't think they look or care much about strangers' videos but I know dd loves all the dances, she's constantly doing them around the house.

So ideally should this be an 18+ only app? Are all parents who allow their children to have it irresponsible?

Could it be a school counsellor or something?

don't think they look or care much about strangers' videos

TikTok is designed for watching random videos. Please be aware that they are expenses to it as soon as they open the app. The 'for you' page comes up. It's full of the kind of thing myself and another posted mentioned earlier today. Your DD isn't going looking for these, they are literally the landing page. It's designed so when you open it you simply scroll down to the next video, and on and on and on. If she wants to see what a friend has posted specifically she has to click a few times to get there. She is not able to simply go on and just look at her friends stuff.

So ideally should this be an 18+ only app?

16 as an absolute minimum imo.

Are all parents who allow their children to have it irresponsible?

I don't know. Probably not. I'm not calling anyone names here, I'm simply trying to explain to you how vital it is that you know why she may see on TikTok. You said she doesn't have Snapchat or insta and she only has TikTok as if it's the lesser of all evils, it's actually the worst. Nobody is calling you for not knowing. But please, check.

*exposed to it

Why didn’t the woman tell you who she was when she phoned earlier? Why just hang up when you said who you are?
13 is too young for any social media imho. Just say no.

But it's entirely possible that it's a wrong number. Especially if your daughter's called something like Olivia, Emily, Anna, Hannah, Ruby or any one of the names there are hundreds of.