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Original poster

To ask what the strangest thing you did online as a teenager was?

314 replies

Username73638 · 20/02/2025 20:31

I’ll go first… when I was about 12 or 13 (mid-00s) I signed up to a UK mum/baby forum - I can’t remember what it was called but it was a bit like Mumsnet but way, way smaller, everyone knew everyone - and created a whole fake life and made a load of ‘friends’ on there who were presumably women in their 20s-40s. This was when the internet was a very different place and everyone had their kids’ names and DOBs on ‘tickers’ I think they were called in their signatures. There was minimal anonymity. I had a fake husband and a couple of fake kids with names and back stories and then ‘got pregnant’ and tracked a whole pregnancy and birth. All of my online ‘friends’ were really excited to hear the birth announcement and helped me pick the baby’s name. I made up a fake birth story. There was actually an in-person meet up with all the kids that I was invited along to but obviously I couldn’t go, I pretended that one of my kids was sick.

I still remember some of the names of the women and their kids and think about how old the kids would be now (in their 20s!)

Anyway after 1-2 years, can’t remember exactly how long, a group of them realised I was fake and ‘confronted’ me online. I didn’t confess but deleted my account and never went back.

I had a difficult home life and I think I wanted to imagine the happy family I might have when I grew up. It was a bit of an obsession though and I spent so many hours on there, basically every afternoon and evening after school. I’ve never done anything similar since, my catfishing days were over after that!

Did anyone else do anything similar online as a teenager, pretending to be anyone else or something?

OP posts:
SlashBeef · 20/02/2025 22:31

UndermyShoeJoe · 20/02/2025 20:53

From the sounds of it baby and bump.

Used to sit in chatrooms taking the piss out of the grumpy mod. She would ban me, I’d log out change ip and be back in winding her up something Cronic. We did actually become threads but boy did I kick her ass in those chat rooms.

Oh my god Baby and Bump! Poor Wobbles. Looking back, I was such an asshole on there 😅

InWithThePlums · 20/02/2025 22:32

UndermyShoeJoe · 20/02/2025 22:27

That’s the one. Oh how we just wasted time and talked to strangers all over the world not a care in the world and nobody checking in on us.

Show quote history

The goal was to swear without it getting blocked.

Unpaidviewer · 20/02/2025 22:32

I spent far too much time on yahoo chat and gore forums.

Ninnier · 20/02/2025 22:32

ilovepixie · 20/02/2025 22:30

No internet when I was growing up. But we used to make crank 999 calls!

We once rang a bakery and sent 4 dozen loaves to someone's house.
Cash on delivery.

Why on earth would we do that?? I don't understand what was going on in our heads. It's awful and I feel so bad thinking about it.

Also got lots of addresses blacklisted from taxis with fake bookings.

AlpacaYourPicnic · 20/02/2025 22:32

Also reminds me of calling random numbers from the phone box down the road.

'Hello is Mr Wall there?

No

'Is Mrs Wall there?'

Err no: think you have a wrong number

'Are any of the Wall's there?'

NO!

'Well how does your house stand up then?'

It was funnier in the 80s

SnipSnipMrBurgess · 20/02/2025 22:35

A lot of inappropriate a/s/ in a PUBLIC Internet cafe. Looking back i bet the people behind the counter knew EXACTLY what I was up to!

I remember being on Heat magazines website which had a chat forum and spinning a tale of my sister dying in a crash with her husband and I laws and I had to take on their 4 children 🙃

I also used to use the mobile chat rooms on my phone from O2, and i don't know if anyone remembers it's my.com? I used to moderate some of their rooms, then it was all shut down one day!

ilovepixie · 20/02/2025 22:36

Oh and we used to phone random numbers and say
US, Can I speak to Mr. Wall please?
THEM, sorry there's no Mr. Wall here. Us, is Mrs Wall there please,
THEM, No Mrs wall here either.
US, Are there any walks there?
THEM, no
US, how does your roof stay on then 😂😂

LovelyBitOfSquirrrel · 20/02/2025 22:37

When I was around 10 I used to like playing Reversi online against other layers and it had a chat function, me and mum had a deal I could say I was 15 as no one would play with me otherwise (a/s/l days). Once a man asked me if he could “drink from my furry cup” I didn’t know what he meant so called mum over to ask her, she didn’t know either.

Neverplayleapfrogwithmrpipes · 20/02/2025 22:37

The internet became popular when I started college. Friends had started to be aired in the USA and we were a season behind in the uk. After watching one episode I was hooked and ended up reading all the scripts online!! In the college library.

YesHonestly · 20/02/2025 22:38

Was it BabyExpert?

Spudthespanner · 20/02/2025 22:38

Neverplayleapfrogwithmrpipes · 20/02/2025 22:37

The internet became popular when I started college. Friends had started to be aired in the USA and we were a season behind in the uk. After watching one episode I was hooked and ended up reading all the scripts online!! In the college library.

See this is the old internet I miss. It's not the same now. It's shite.

Teapotters · 20/02/2025 22:38

When I was 13/14 I would join different religious chat rooms and pretend to be that religion. I would also often say I was 21 year old man, and I had several online GFs.

This was all one dial up on the giant family computer in the living room, a lot of my girlfriends were in the US so I'd have to sneak down at different times due to the timezones

NO idea why I did this! But it helped me get an A* in Religious Studies

Reallyneedsaholiday · 20/02/2025 22:40

Not a teenager, but I used to comment on lots of “tv fan” Facebook pages - such as The Wright Stuff. The same faces appeared over and over again, and we all started talking to each other. We set up fake profiles and a “virtual pub” page, where we would all chat behind the scenes, and en masse troll people on the pages who were being vile. We used to change our fake profile pictures to trolls when we spotted someone. Wasted hours of our lives on this 😂

Goody2ShoesAndTheFilthyBeast · 20/02/2025 22:42

Like many others, there was no Internet then.

We didn't even have a house phone. I remember when a call went up from the old 2p pieces (lm sure they were bigger back then) to 10p. My mum was livid. 🤣

My dad had a cb radio and one day me and my sister snuck on it and talked and got a stern telling off from some random bloke.

battgirlatheart · 20/02/2025 22:42

Was it babycentre?
I was on there with a daughter now 22 and there were often fakes like this.

angieboo1 · 20/02/2025 22:44

Username73638 · 20/02/2025 21:18

@ShrimpBoil @Niknakcake nope and nope. It had the word baby in it I’m pretty sure.

@verysmellyjelly wow 🙊

Babyworld?

CrossCountryWoosh · 20/02/2025 22:46

When you had to pay for text messages, there were various websites that you could use to send free text messages. I use to spend hours sending pictures made from text to random people anonymously eg. I'd send a message that just said:

=.=

No malicious intent but I have no idea why I thought it was so funny. I mean, if I got a random cat text I'd find it funny but not after getting tens of them.

I'd also bait people online. Again not sure why that was funny but I guess I was bored and lonely.

Later, I'd "write" very authoritive articles on various websites as if I knew what I was talking about rather than giving really bad advice. I stopped that after a website published my university email address and I got into trouble.

PassingStranger · 20/02/2025 22:48

Username73638 · 20/02/2025 20:31

I’ll go first… when I was about 12 or 13 (mid-00s) I signed up to a UK mum/baby forum - I can’t remember what it was called but it was a bit like Mumsnet but way, way smaller, everyone knew everyone - and created a whole fake life and made a load of ‘friends’ on there who were presumably women in their 20s-40s. This was when the internet was a very different place and everyone had their kids’ names and DOBs on ‘tickers’ I think they were called in their signatures. There was minimal anonymity. I had a fake husband and a couple of fake kids with names and back stories and then ‘got pregnant’ and tracked a whole pregnancy and birth. All of my online ‘friends’ were really excited to hear the birth announcement and helped me pick the baby’s name. I made up a fake birth story. There was actually an in-person meet up with all the kids that I was invited along to but obviously I couldn’t go, I pretended that one of my kids was sick.

I still remember some of the names of the women and their kids and think about how old the kids would be now (in their 20s!)

Anyway after 1-2 years, can’t remember exactly how long, a group of them realised I was fake and ‘confronted’ me online. I didn’t confess but deleted my account and never went back.

I had a difficult home life and I think I wanted to imagine the happy family I might have when I grew up. It was a bit of an obsession though and I spent so many hours on there, basically every afternoon and evening after school. I’ve never done anything similar since, my catfishing days were over after that!

Did anyone else do anything similar online as a teenager, pretending to be anyone else or something?

What a waste of time, what was the point?
I couldn't be arsed doing that.

NameChangedForThis1985 · 20/02/2025 22:49

PassingStranger · 20/02/2025 22:48

What a waste of time, what was the point?
I couldn't be arsed doing that.

Show quote history

Are you lost?

Pinkypup · 20/02/2025 22:50

Username73638 · 20/02/2025 20:31

I’ll go first… when I was about 12 or 13 (mid-00s) I signed up to a UK mum/baby forum - I can’t remember what it was called but it was a bit like Mumsnet but way, way smaller, everyone knew everyone - and created a whole fake life and made a load of ‘friends’ on there who were presumably women in their 20s-40s. This was when the internet was a very different place and everyone had their kids’ names and DOBs on ‘tickers’ I think they were called in their signatures. There was minimal anonymity. I had a fake husband and a couple of fake kids with names and back stories and then ‘got pregnant’ and tracked a whole pregnancy and birth. All of my online ‘friends’ were really excited to hear the birth announcement and helped me pick the baby’s name. I made up a fake birth story. There was actually an in-person meet up with all the kids that I was invited along to but obviously I couldn’t go, I pretended that one of my kids was sick.

I still remember some of the names of the women and their kids and think about how old the kids would be now (in their 20s!)

Anyway after 1-2 years, can’t remember exactly how long, a group of them realised I was fake and ‘confronted’ me online. I didn’t confess but deleted my account and never went back.

I had a difficult home life and I think I wanted to imagine the happy family I might have when I grew up. It was a bit of an obsession though and I spent so many hours on there, basically every afternoon and evening after school. I’ve never done anything similar since, my catfishing days were over after that!

Did anyone else do anything similar online as a teenager, pretending to be anyone else or something?

Was there a wedding forum attached to it as well? Could it be baby and bump? I think someone else said it earlier but you may have missed the comment. Think the wedding one was band of brides or something similar?

Mummyoflittledragon · 20/02/2025 22:50

Am Loving these stories. No such thing as the internet in my youth. I used to call the speaking clock I was that bored. I did borrow a cb radio for a while. That was fun.

dogpool · 20/02/2025 22:50

I made a fandom website for Orlando Bloom 😂this was during his peak popularity with LOTR and the first Pirates of the Caribbean. You could then register your fandom page on an "official" fandom directory and it would be listed alongside other sites, so people could collect little GIFs made by each official fandom page and put it on their own websites to show they too supported that actor/film/character etc. A much more innocent time!

I was also in an online community about a virtual pet game where you could adopt, breed and show your virtual cat/dog. Some learned to hex code and mod the cats and dogs into all sorts of cool things!

I did learn a lot about basic HTML and coding during this period of my life and these definitely helped me get into my career more than my degree ever did😅

Tigergirl80 · 20/02/2025 22:50

Not in my youth I didn’t have internet access until around 2010. I do remember sleeping at my friends sisters flat when I was about 15. Would have been 92/93. I hear the police radio over the CB going all night about someone losing a lot of blood and they don’t think he will make it. Found out the next day he was a mate of her sister’s partner. He had taken an overdose and slit his wrists. It was so odd but sad.😢😢😢

FcukTheDay · 20/02/2025 22:51

I spent many a days chatting to people on a chat room, it was UKChat. I then faked ID so I could become a 'host' basically a mod.

TheScenicWay · 20/02/2025 22:52

We used to follow people around chat rooms and ask them random stupid questions and if they'd marry us.
My friend used to try to blackmail people for stupid (yet hilarious) reasons in the chat rooms by telling them he was going to blow up their internet. All ridiculous of course and before 9/11 when the threat of such things were not really that serious.