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Original poster

Twelve-year-old's WhatsApp group being spammed with explicit GIFs

54 replies

NotPerfectlyAdverage · 26/09/2026 15:41

My 12 year old dd is on a group WhatsApp chat with her 12 year mates. When i was looking at my photos, one of the kids? Is spamming the group with porn gifs. What do I do? I can't Google this as the word "porn" shuts my search engine down. Help! Its my phone. Not hers. All this is on my device and it looks like im on the group! No idea how long this has been going on for as literally just found it. Before its been tame chat.

OP posts:
DearCritic · 26/09/2026 19:41

Thisusernameisalwaysavailable · 26/09/2026 19:34

You said that your daughter said she isn't part of the group.... The confusion is how could you not know?

Now you're saying she's using your phone, which is .... Weird because now you have children's phone numbers on as contact...

Anyway, lesson learned, children shouldn't be i WhatsApp. Protect your child.

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I don’t think English is OP’s first language, it doesn’t make much sense.

OP, whatever the situation is here…. No more WhatsApp, or group chats until after GCSE’s. All mobile phones are capable of texting, they can text normally to arrange to meet up.

theneighbourgotmycake · 26/09/2026 20:21

Itsdifficulttodomyjobsometimes · 26/09/2026 18:52

It really isn't fine. I sit at my desk at work crying sometimes because I have to read chat logs where kids are being groomed or sexploited.
You name a messaging app and I've probably come across it at work.

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I don't deny the existence of bullying or paedophiles, of course not, but thats' parents who should be vigilant, not blaming messaging apps.

It's the same with video games, they're used for grooming, we don't ban them for under 18. It's parents who have a responsibility here.

theneighbourgotmycake · 26/09/2026 20:25

Thisusernameisalwaysavailable · 26/09/2026 19:36

Um.

Weird and false comparison.

That's like saying because sex shops exist in the high street, that kids shouldn't be allowed to go into town shopping?

Or the other way round to suit your narrative, kids should be allowed in sex shops because they're allowed to go shopping in town.

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if you wanted to make a real comparison, it would be allowing kids on sex chats...

We are talking about Whatsapp, it's not a sex thing. It's just a messaging platform? I use whatsapp every single day, I have never seen one pornographic or even inappropriate anything on it.

It's about WHO are you using it with, not whatsapp itself.

That's like saying because sex shops exist in the high street, that kids shouldn't be allowed to go into town shopping?
that's what posters are saying, exactly the opposite of my point.

Itsdifficulttodomyjobsometimes · 27/09/2026 10:16

theneighbourgotmycake · 26/09/2026 20:21

I don't deny the existence of bullying or paedophiles, of course not, but thats' parents who should be vigilant, not blaming messaging apps.

It's the same with video games, they're used for grooming, we don't ban them for under 18. It's parents who have a responsibility here.

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When people see it as just a messaging app that's the problem. It then becomes easy to dismiss just how powerful a tool it can be.
Large group chats can quickly go from just a bit of fun to toxic and bordering on criminality.
And we've already had one parent on this short thread saying a paedophile was added to a group chat.

These apps offer live location sharing and status updates to encourage you to share and communicate more. The more tools they add the more it comes to resemble social media.

If people just wanted their kids to be able to message their friends they'd stick to SMS.

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