She definitely doesn't truly believe she's a cat - it's 100% a game that her and all her friends play, and it's not all the time, she does plenty of other activities and plays other imaginary games that don't involve this.
BUT, in her world, the word therian is used for this game and they do say they were animals in past lives and go through shifts when they become their animal. If I challenge it, she does say no mummy I AM a cat now as I have gone through a shift, but this only lasts for the remainder of the game and then is forgotten. I know her friends play it at school and sometimes like dressing up and making masks outside of school, amongst many other other, normal activities.
I guess what I'm trying to say is although they have heard and apply certain language to this, and yes I have had a chat about what identifying as something means, I don't hold too much weight to it. This is the world now and the language they are growing up around. In the vast majority of cases it's just kids exploring and playing and it's completely harmless. I do appreciate there are certain cases where it has gone too far, especially in older kids, what what I'm talking about is the current trend of primary aged children pretending to be animals and calling themselves therians. I agree this has likely trickled down through tiktok and YouTube (although in my daughter's case she has no access to these) but this is just what happens in schools.
I know there is some connotations to fetishism but I am no more concerned than any other risks of abuse on the Internet for example. I don't think someone with a furry fetish or whatever will be any more likely to be a pedophile, any more than any other kind of fetish. She's not allowed on the Internet or social media anyway so I think she's pretty protected.
I appreciate some people may not take the same approach with their kids but I feel strongly that I don't want to shame her at 7 years old for something completely harmless. As I said before, if the phase doesn't pass and she goes to secondary school still playing this game or calling herself a therian, it might be time to have a more serious chat. But for now I have absolutely zero concerns and neither do the parents of her friends.