Reminds me of a warning I read when I first got online decades ago:
“That ‘15-year-old girl’ you’re chatting with is really a 40-year-old Sheriff’s Deputy.”
Very good possibility.
Years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and Bill Clinton was in his first term, I worked as a librarian for Monmouth University in NJ. I participated in a program, sponsored by the police, where I hung out in a computer board frequented by kids. I was pretending to be a 12-year old boy. I never asked the the kids we messaged with their name, never asked them to meet me, and never asked them where they lived, or how old they were. I avoided all the the alert questions kids are told not to answer.
But often the people involved in the program could figure out who the child was because they’d tell us what school they went to, who their teacher was, what color their hair was, favorite color-food-video game, what little league baseball or soccer team they played for - and what position and the number on their jersey. Finding out their number for the soccer team was normally enough because the league schedule was public information. They’d also grumble that they had to walk to the park because mom and dad had to work, and give a basic route. All of the little things that a pedophile could use to identify a kid and when they’d be by themselves.
Once we got the child identified we’d go with the police and knock on the door and talk to the parents and the child about being safer online.
I don’t think anybody does that anymore.