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The original was posted on /r/twohottakes by /u/New_Mushroom_3906 on 2023-10-07 05:02:56.

To start this story I’m 18f, and I have a 9 year old sister, who has a phone, not that that’s an issue, but the thing that gets me is it isn’t monitored whatsoever, no parental controls no child lock nothing, she has complete access to the internet. And that ticks me off because looking back my mom did the same thing for me, she hated having to entertain me, and the phone would be my distraction so she wouldn’t have to deal with me, which I loved at the time but looking back it caused so many issues. and she’s doing the same with my sister.

when I was younger I had some horrible experiences with gross people online, and thinking what they were doing was okay because I was so young, and was never taught cell phone safety, or internet precautions, I was just handed a cell phone, probably around the same age as her, between 8 and 10. And I hate the thought of the same happening to my sister. I only lived with my mom until I was around 13, then she lost custody. I just recently I got back in contact with my mother, and sister, A few days ago my sister was staying at my apartment, because my mom was out of town, and plus I wanted to spend some time with her, when I noticed she was glued to the phone texting someone, just out of general curiosity I asked who, she said it was her “special friend” whom she was messaging on Instagram, I asked her what she meant by special friend, and if she knew them from school, she said no, it’s a friend she met online, and apparently she wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, but she trusts me.

I’m glad that she trusted me with this information, but I asked if I could see the account, it was a burner account, with catfish pictures, I reversed searched them, to be 100% sure. God knows who this was talking to my sister, so I took it upon myself to talk to her about how unsafe this was, and showed her the Pinterest photos, and how she was being catfished, and to never send anything to anyone you don’t know online. This is not in any way her fault, I wasn’t mad at her, but I was furious with my mother.

So I helped her make her Instagram private, and we went through her following and narrowed it down to who she knew. There was probably about 10 grown men following her, whom she did not know, I wish I could make this shit up. We removed reported and blocked all of them, I made sure she knew how to block people. Once I got a moment alone, I called my mom, and WENT OFF, I told her how her 9 year old daughter is talking to strangers on the internet, possibly being groomed, and how she is being a shit parent, and needs to WAKE UP and get it together before her kid is on the news for getting kidnapped by a online predator or something. And that she already messed up my childhood and she will NOT mess up hers. I was furious, I’ll admit I said some not so nice things, but she needed to hear them. She told me to butt out of her parenting and that what she’s doing is fine, and she insists she checks on her, it is clear she does not, I even asked her if mom ever looked at her phone, no surprise she said no. I’m just so sick of her bullshit. Was I out of line, maybe, but I’m sick of her lazy parenting, and something needed to be done here, before way worse things happen. Her having a phone is not my issue, lots of kids do, the fact that she’s left unattended, and allowed access to the entire internet, without being checked on because of my mothers laziness is. So Aita and should I have just left the whole situation alone, and is it bad I don’t feel bad for yelling at her.