A South Australian influencer was stunned when she discovered a stranger was trying to “groom” her 10-year-old daughter Valentina online.
Hayley Berlingeri, 35, confiscated her son’s iPad for three months when she discovered the preteen had been talking to someone on the online game Roblox.
Sharing the shocking details on Instagram, Hayley warned her followers that her daughter figured out how to turn the chat feature disabled, leaving her vulnerable to being contacted by strangers online.
‘Girls, just a little reminder to stay alert and know what your kids are doing online!’ Hayley began her lengthy message to fans.
“I’ve taken Vali’s iPad away for the past three months because I found her messaging a random person on Roblox after she figured out how to turn on the chat feature that I had turned off when she first got the game. Turns out, He was a hairdresser!
Hayley said she started going through all the messages between Valentina and this stranger, and discovered that they had been “offering to give her new pets in the game and show her new rooms.”
‘That’s how it starts. “It’s like textbook playground grooming, where the kidnapper offers the child candy,” Hayley said before sharing the “random person’s” online username.
Hayley went on to say that she used to frequently check Valentina’s iPad for suspicious activity, but she “slacked off” because “she’s a really good girl.”
South Australian influencer Hayley Berlingeri (right) was stunned when she discovered a stranger was attempting to ‘groom’ her 10-year-old daughter Valentina (left) online.
“I’m so grateful I found out about all of this before anything happened,” she added.
‘And I am very grateful for the lesson I have learned to not blindly trust my children, even if they are so good, sweet and lovely. At the end of the day, they’re still children.’
Valentina has since had her iPad returned “with all chat functions disabled” and Hayley said she will “keep her eyes peeled” for any inappropriate behavior her eldest son may encounter online.
Roblox is an online gaming platform that allows users to communicate with each other, as well as “create, share experiences with friends, and be anything you can imagine.”
This is not the first time Hayley’s children have been exposed to shocking online interactions.
Moments after sharing what happened to Valentina, the mother of four, who shares children Valentina, Rome, eight, Sonny, six, and Giulietta, two, with her husband of 14 years, Paolo, said she had have to confiscate his iPad. two children too.
Hayley confiscated her son’s iPad for three months when she discovered the preteen had been talking to someone on the online game Roblox.
Sharing the shocking details on Instagram, Hayley warned her followers that her daughter figured out how to turn the chat feature disabled, leaving her vulnerable to being contacted by strangers online.
This is not the first time Hayley’s children have been exposed to shocking online interactions. Moments after sharing what happened to Valentina, the mother of four said she also had to confiscate her two children’s iPads.
Hayley shares children Valentina, Rome, eight, Sonny, six, and Giulietta, two, with her husband of 14 years, Paolo. Everything in the photo
“We also banned our children from using iPads for three months because an older child we trusted showed them inappropriate things online and then they searched for things again and didn’t tell us,” Hayley said.
‘It can happen very easily and even the “best” children can hide things from their parents, no matter how educated they are or how many conversations about the subject they have had.
“This whole online world is scary and we have to stay on top of everything, which is really difficult when time is so short these days.”
Hayley said her family of six has “been in a real shock” in recent months when it comes to online activity “because some things have happened that we never thought would happen.”
The mummy blogger was shocked because she said she always made sure to have “very direct conversations” with her children about the dangers that being online can bring.
She added that her children’s school also “has really great online safety programs” that teach students to be careful when browsing online spaces.
“Even with all that, these things still happened and our children still didn’t come to us,” she said.
“It’s been a very welcome awakening to be even more vigilant about checking what they do online and not blindly trusting them because, at the end of the day, all we want to do is keep our children safe and happy. TRUE?”
Hayley is an Adelaide-based influencer with 126,000 followers on her public Instagram account, where she frequently shares photos of her four children and the luxurious holidays she takes them on.