{"id":114640,"date":"2025-09-03T02:50:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T02:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/114640\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T02:50:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T02:50:14","slug":"the-high-school-catfish-unlocked-a-new-fear-for-moms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/114640\/","title":{"rendered":"The High School Catfish\u2019 Unlocked a New Fear for Moms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt\u2019s been several days since I watched Unknown Number: The High School Catfish<\/a> documentary on Netflix<\/a>, and I can\u2019t stop thinking about it. This is a documentary about teens in Beal City, Michigan, who were victims of vicious and cruel cyberbullying<\/a> for over a year from an unknown number, and it left me shocked and completely unsettled. As a mom of three kids, this documentary left me reeling \u2014 and with a deeper fear for my kids\u2019 teenage years than ever before. (Warning: this article contains major spoilers for Unknown Number: The High School<\/a> Catfish.)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Lauryn<\/p>\n

\tRelated story<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNetflix’s Unknown Number: Who Was Sending the Shocking Texts to 13-Year-Old Lauryn? (& Why)\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tIt all started when 13-year-old Lauryn Licari and her boyfriend at the time Owen McKenny started getting mean, anonymous text messages from a number they didn\u2019t recognize in Oct. 2020. The messages paused, then resumed in Sept. 2021, getting progressively worse, explicit, and threatening over the next 15 months until the perpetrator was caught.<\/p>\n

\n\tCyberbullying is, unfortunately, not rare and can lead to lifelong psychological damage. In fact, one study found that even subtle types of cyberbullying, such as leaving teens out of online group chats, was linked to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and trauma.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"UNKNOWN<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tUNKNOWN NUMBER: THE HIGH SCHOOL CATFISH, Owen, 2025. \u00a9 Netflix \/ Courtesy Everett Collection
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a9Netflix\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tTessa Stuckey, MA, LPC,<\/a>\u00a0founder of Project LookUp, previously told SheKnows<\/a>, \u201cWhen teens are excluded or rejected online, their brains process it similarly to physical pain. It attacks their self-worth, identity, and perceived social value \u2014 often in a public or permanent way due to the nature of digital platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Lauryn and Owen, the cyberbullying they received was much worse than being rejected. The anonymous texter sent hundreds of dark and disturbing texts, including messages like, \u201cu are the ugliest person I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d \u201cu are worthless n mean nothing,\u201d and \u201cwe will make every day miserable.\u201d The texter also told Lauryn to \u201ckill yourself now b****\u201d and threatened, \u201cfinish yourself or we will.\u201d The teens would get up to 50 texts a day with threats and insults, including sexually explicit advances toward Owen.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the scariest parts while watching this? The parents, the school, and the local authorities were powerless to stop it. The anonymous texter was using phone apps to send the messages from different numbers, so even when the teens would block them, it would start up again immediately. It seemed like everyone was at a loss of what to do and how to act, so these kids just had to continue dealing with the messages for over a year.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"UNKNOWN<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tUNKNOWN NUMBER: THE HIGH SCHOOL CATFISH, 2025. \u00a9 Netflix \/ Courtesy Everett Collection
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a9Netflix\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tObviously, I would want to rip my child\u2019s phone away and throw it in the trash if I saw this, but is that practical? Getting them a new phone wouldn\u2019t help either, as the sender knew intimate details about their lives, including Lauryn\u2019s nickname \u201cLo,\u201d and would seemingly be able to get their new numbers quickly. It\u2019s such a helpless and scary feeling watching this and just thinking that the kids have to suck it up and deal with it.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor those who\u2019ve seen the documentary, the big twist at the end makes the messages feel all the stranger. Because (spoiler alert!), they were sent by Lauryn\u2019s mom Kendra Licari<\/a>. An FBI cybersecurity expert tracked the IP address to Kendra, and she admitted to sending the texts as a way to \u201ckeep Lauryn close,\u201d which experts have called a type of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Experts in the documentary also speculated that Kendra had an unhealthy obsession with Owen, considering how some of the text would say things like, \u201c[Owen] will be with me while your lonely ugly a** is alone\u201d and \u201che wants sex, bjs n making out, he don\u2019t want ur sry a**.\u201d She was arrested and pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking a minor and went to prison until Aug. 2024.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t know that she really knows why she did it. She does mention in the documentary an assault that happened [to her] when she was right around Lauryn\u2019s age,\u201d filmmaker Skye Borgman told Netflix\u2019s Tudum<\/a>. \u201cShe talks about how scary that was for her to see her only child, her little girl, growing up, and that\u2019s what she really relates to and that\u2019s what she believes led her to sending these text messages and trying to keep Lauryn close.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBorgman asked Kendra in the documentary why she sent Lauryn these threatening messages, and Kendra simply said, \u201cI was not scared of her hurting herself.\u201d Borgman later told TIME<\/a>, \u201cMaybe the escalation to telling Lauryn to kill herself is the last attempt to get her as close as she possibly can. But it just seems so incredibly extreme. I mean, she says she never thought Lauren would do it, but I just don\u2019t know any parent who would ever even think of doing something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor me, the sensational, creepy twist of the mom sending Lauryn these messages doesn\u2019t make me feel any better. Sure, some people might watch this and sigh in relief, thinking, \u201cI\u2019m a good mother; I would never send these messages to my kids.\u201d But if you think that means you have nothing to worry about, it\u2019s sadly not true. According to the Pew Research Center<\/a>, nearly half (46 percent) of teens reported ever experiencing cyberbullying, with the most common being offensive name calling, followed by spreading false rumors, receiving explicit images they didn\u2019t ask for, being asked constantly where they are, being physically threatened, and having explicit images of them shared without consent.<\/p>\n

\n\tSandra Kushnir, a licensed marriage and family therapist, previously told SheKnows<\/a> what to look for if you suspect your child is a victim of cyberbullying. \u201cParents should watch for subtle signs like changes in mood, avoidance of social activities, or a drop in academic performance, as these can indicate their child may be experiencing relational bullying,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tKushnir also shared these tips for kids who are being bullied. \u201cIf a child encounters a bully, it is crucial for them to remain calm, avoid retaliation, and seek help from a trusted adult. Parents should create an open, non-judgmental space for communication if they suspect their child is being bullied, ensuring they listen and validate the child\u2019s feelings while helping them navigate the situation.\u201d (And, obviously, this goes without saying: don\u2019t send the threatening, cyberbullying messages to your kids yourself.)<\/p>\n

\n\tRaising a child right now is harder than ever, but with the school phone bans<\/a> and other efforts parents are making to protect their kids online, there is some hope. Having open and honest communication with your kids about this stuff is vitally important, no matter how you decide to approach your teens\u2019 technology rules at home.<\/p>\n

These celebrity parents are sharing the struggle \u2014 and sweetness \u2014 of raising teenagers<\/a>.
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been several days since I watched Unknown Number: The High School Catfish documentary on Netflix, and I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,81526,134,6668,344,435,81527],"class_list":["post-114640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cyberbullying","tag-entertainment","tag-high-school","tag-movies","tag-netflix","tag-social-media-and-teens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}