Last month, former English national player Adam Johnsonwas convicted of having sexual relations with a 15-year-old girl that he met on Facebook. He is currently awaiting sentencing, but he’s expected to spend an extensive amount of time behind bars as a result of what he did.
English club Fulham F.C. decided to be proactive about preventing their players from getting themselves into similar situations, so recently, they set up a sting operation within their own organization to teach their players a valuable lesson about the dangers associated with social media. The team hired someone to pose as a 16-year-old girl—16 is the legal age of consent when it comes to sex in the UK—and had them reach out to various players on the team. They essentially catfished their own players, and it sounds like it worked at least a few times. Former Fulham manager Kit Symons revealed that several young players walked right into the trap they set.
“Some of the young players fell for it as real,” Symons said. “It was short, sharp shock. You can tell lads about getting caught out and they’ll think, ‘Oh, they won’t catch me,’ and then it happens, they are caught.”
Technically, the players didn’t do anything wrong, at least as far as the law is concerned. But if nothing else, Fulham players will now think twice before interacting with anyone on the Internet.
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[via Fox Sports]
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