Have you guys not noticed how these claims are totally unsubstantiated? The child who identifies as a moon is on the hearsay of one pupil talking about an unnamed classmate. Same with all the others. Then the newspapers repeat the same stories. We're being duped, this absolutely is not a widespread phenomenon that we should be worried about.
There is also a massive difference between identifying as a literal cat, being a furry, and just messing around with how you present. Furries do not think that they are literal animals. It just suits right wind media to lump these kids together with furries because the furry community is full of dangerous sexual fetishes, many of whom target children.
But also, these kids do not think they are literally cats. They are just finding ways of expressing themselves, like goths do. We do them a disservice both when we ridicule them and when we take them too seriously. We also do them a disservice when we believe baseless rumours printed in trash newspapers.