Kids posing online as pedophiles

This is an important heads-up if parents are worried about predators contacting their children online. The "predators" could be other kids playing pranks or being cyberbullies, because anybody can pose as just about anybody else online. Apparently that's happening in southwestern England, where police are saying "children as young as 10 may be posing as predatory paedophiles" on social-networking sites "to frighten boys and girls they have fallen out with," The Guardian reports. It adds that "as many as nine youngsters" were targeted in this way in Bebo and MSN. The police "initially believed a local man was trying to groom the children" (see "How to recognize grooming") but "a member of the public has come forward and told them that youngsters are trying to settle playground disputes by posing as a paedophile to frighten their rivals." For examples of more "conventional" cyberbullying, see this story in the Flint (Mich.) Journal.