All cards
1 to 24 of 74 cards
-
Act
764 network
764 is a violent online network that, according to an FBI warning, poses as a friend or partner on games and social apps, then uses compromising material to pressure kids into hurting themselves.
-
Act
Bloody Friday rumour (Poland)
After two real school attacks in Poland, a rumour of a coordinated online challenge for a "Bloody Friday" spread and emptied schools; police found no evidence of any such challenge, but teens were still detained for posting threats, so joining in is the real risk.
-
Act
School threats by teens
Recent Ontario police cases show teens making threats against schools, one of them in a youth group chat after an argument got heated; the threats may turn out to be empty, but kids who post or send them can be charged.
-
Act
AI nude deepfakes of teens
Offenders and some peers use AI to fake sexual images of teens from ordinary photos, and offenders use them to extort money; Cybertip.ca and the IWF both report sharp increases.
-
Act
Cat in the Hat school threat hoax
Creepy, often AI-made posts of the Cat in the Hat naming schools have spread across the US and police keep finding no credible threat, but teens who post or add threats are being arrested and charged, so the real risk is to kids who join in.
-
Act
764 network
764 is a violent online extremist network whose members befriend teens, mostly girls, then use threats and blackmail to push them into harming themselves, and recent prosecutions in the US and Québec show police are treating it as a real and serious threat.
-
Act
Sextortion
Offenders, often posing as a peer, get a teen to share an intimate image and then threaten to send it to friends and family unless they pay or send more; reports to the US child-protection centre NCMEC rose from about 36,000 in 2024 to over 50,000 in 2025, and Canadian police are charging offenders.
-
Act
764 network
764 is a violent extremist network, treated as a terrorist entity in Canada, whose members approach kids and teens on gaming and chat apps, build trust, then use blackmail to push them toward harming themselves or others.
-
Act
Sextortion
Sextortion is blackmail using intimate images, or the threat of sharing them, to force a young person to pay, send more images or comply; police in Winnipeg report a sharp rise and say victims should not pay and should tell someone.
-
Act
Sextortion
Sextortion is when someone, often a scammer posing as a teen, gets or fakes an intimate image of a young person and threatens to share it unless they pay, and AI-made fake images are making it harder for families to spot.
-
Act
Sexual deepfakes and Grok images
AI tools, including Grok on X, have been used to turn ordinary photos of real people, including children, into sexualized images without their consent, and those images can be used to humiliate or blackmail.
-
Act
Online recruitment of teens into crime and extremism
Police in Montréal report more offers online that pay teens to commit crimes, and Canada has listed violent extremist networks that recruit young people through social media and gaming platforms as terrorist entities.
-
Act
AI deepfake nudes of classmates
Police in Canada report that teens are using AI to turn ordinary photos of classmates into fake sexual images, and a teen has been charged with child sexual abuse material offences, so the harm falls on the girls targeted and on any teen who makes or shares the images.
-
Act
Virtual kidnapping scam calls
Scammers text or call families claiming a loved one has been kidnapped and send altered photos taken from social media as fake proof, but no one has been taken and the only goal is a quick ransom payment.
-
Act
AI intruder photo prank
Teens send parents AI-faked photos of a stranger inside the home to film their panic; the intruder is fake, but the emergency calls are real and kids have been charged.
-
Watch
Extreme TikTok experiments
Creators film themselves trying out viral TikTok stunts and hacks for laughs on YouTube, and the evidence so far is a single humour video, so the main thing to watch is kids copying a stunt without the safety a production team provides.
-
Watch
Roblox account locking and player backlash
Creators say Roblox is locking some accounts and players are angry, and videos about a 'gift' for players could be bait for scams, though the details are not yet confirmed.
-
Watch
Grooming on Snapchat and Instagram
UK child-protection experts report that online grooming is getting quicker and easier on apps like Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok, which makes it worth knowing the pattern and keeping the conversation open at home.
-
Watch
Teen mental distress
Tel-jeunes reports about 20% more contacts from Québec teens in a year, and a Léger survey it commissioned found a third of 12 to 17 year-olds feel anxious every week, so this is a real, widespread pattern that parents can help with, not a passing online fad.
-
Watch
Criminal recruitment of minors online
Quebec police report that criminal groups are approaching teens through social media and online games to get them involved in violent crime, which puts those teens at risk of harm and of arrest.
-
Watch
Nicotine pouches
Nicotine pouches are legally restricted to adults in Canada, but advocates and studies say illicit online and in-store sales are getting them to teens, who can become hooked on nicotine.
-
Watch
Looksmaxxing
Looksmaxxing is online slang for working to improve your physical appearance, now so common that Merriam-Webster has added it to its dictionary, and while much of it is ordinary grooming talk, some of it feeds appearance pressure on teens.
-
Watch
Blackout challenge
A parent in the US reports middle schoolers filming themselves in a choking game meant to make them pass out, a long-running trend that police and health agencies link to deaths, though this is a single local report.
-
Watch
Door kick challenge
Teens film themselves pounding or kicking strangers' doors late at night for social media; it is a prank to them, but it frightens families, can damage homes and could lead to mischief charges, though the reports so far are warnings rather than arrests.
New cards, every Monday.
The Mistlift brief sums up what kids are into online this week, rated from harmless to serious, with what to say.