A mum has told of her horror after discovering her 13-year-old daughter had given out their home address to an online stranger.
The woman was alerted after her daughter asked her for a stamp to send a letter to a 'penpal' she met on the social networking site Discord.
But when her mother asked to see the correspondence between the two she was shocked to discover the address the penpal gave was just 'Motel 6'.
The mum said she was now fearful her daughter had been duped by an online predator and asked fellow parents for advice on the social networking site, Reddit.
She said: "My daughter, 13, made a "friend" through Discord a few weeks ago, and they asked her to be pen pals. So, she gave them our home address. She came to me to get a stamp and I asked her to see the chat.
"The address they gave was to a Motel 6. We had her ask what kind of house they lived in and they said an apartment. The "apartment complex" name they gave her was the name of a veteran's nursing home in the town where the Motel 6 is. Clearly this isn't a real address.
"We've had so many talks about internet safety and not giving out any personal info, but she gave way our home address after taking to sometime for a couple of weeks.
"I'm not sure what to do now. I'm freaked out about some stranger knowing where we live. It'd be easy to figure out where she goes to school, since we live in a very small town. What do we do now?"
Fellow parents urged the mum to take serious steps to protect her daughter - including contacting police.
One said: "Talk to your neighbours and ask them to keep an eye out for anything suspicious! Also report this person to Discord's Trust and Safety team!"
Another said: "Add her location to your phone if you don’t have that already. Also, monitor ALL of her social media. Get her passwords and keep them. It’s so scary out there, so many creeps! Sorry this happened."
A third added: "Contact the police. Notify the school. Give the stranger's pics to police and school."
A fourth Reddit user said: "I would also call the non emergency line for the town that the Motel is located in and tell them that you believe an adult has been chatting with your child and your child gave out the home address and the person gave the motel as their home address. See if they can see who it is etc. no matter what an adult asking a 13 yr old for their address is weird and inappropriate."
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
