A FERMANAGH mother has expressed her horror and disgust after discovering a social media account that she says encourages young people to engage in sexual behaviour.
The woman, who did not wish to be identified, contacted the Fermanagh Herald this week to highlight her concerns around an Instagram account called fermanagh_shifts, where inappropriate comments are being posted and bullying is taking place. The page claims “to put up Fermanagh secrets and shifts” while also encouraging youngsters to “send in some”.
The concerned mother learned of the disturbing details of the page from her 12-year-old daughter at the weekend. She has described it as “vile”.
“It’s pictures of youngsters kissing and other stuff. As a parent I was absolutely horrified to learn that all the kids are on it at the minute. It is awful and I literally cried when I saw the posts and read some of the horrendous comments. It’s frightening as some young people are encouraging others to go further than kissing.
“My daughter is even being pressured by people in her class at school to kiss a boy and put the picture on this group! Other kids are commenting, calling some girls sluts and generally being very nasty,” the worried mum said.
“I’ve told my girl how awful this is and warned her not to do anything. She says that she’s one of the last ones in her school not to have posted a picture and now they are all calling her frigid. This is absolutely disgusting and it’s dreadful to think that this is going on on our doorstep.
“Obviously I have only just learned of this but I want to warn other parents who may not know that this account exists so that I can make them aware of it.
“If any of your children are on it, you might want to consider taking them off especially because of the peer pressure and bullying involved. If anyone is worried, they need to talk to their children and know where they are after school.
“At least my daughter and I have a good relationship which meant that she had the sense to tell me about it even though it has left me totally dumbfounded,” she added.
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