There’s a popular social media trend where teenage girls share videos of themselves with captions like “I can’t date a 2012” – meanwhile, a song plays in the background with the lyrics, “yes you can”.

A quick look on TikTok and you can see there are over 119,000 posts tagged #yesyoucan.

While some argue it’s satire and just “teens being teens”, experts have called out the messaging behind the trend because they are worried it could lead to grooming.

Many of the teenagers taking part are female. “Can I be touchy or nah?” reads one caption, while a girl pouts and nods her head. Another says: “I can’t be with a 2014” while ‘yes you can’ plays in the background.

At first glance it appears the girls are discussing the years they’re born, but some believe teens are actually just putting 20 in front of their age.

One reply to a video of a teen girl reads: “Yes I can” and a kiss emoji. It’s not clear whether these responses are from other teens – or adults.

While it’s easy to dismiss it as yet another trend the kids are doing that will fizzle out as quickly as it began, it’s worth noting that it comes amid a backdrop of steeply rising online grooming offences in the UK.

More than 7,000 Sexual Communication with a Child offences were recorded by police last year (2023/24) – up 89% since 2017/18 when the offence first came into force.

Most grooming cases (81%) take place against girls, with primary school children also being targeted by offenders.

It’s clear........

© HuffPost