Fact Check

Thierry Mairot

Is a person named Thierry Mairot attempting to engage children in sexual conversations via Facebook?

Published Sept. 28, 2010

Claim:

Claim:   A person named Thierry Mairot is attempting to engage children in sexual conversations via Facebook.


FALSE


Example:   [Collected via e-mail, September 2010]


To all parents whose children have a profile on facebook. There is a man
trying to get in contact with children to talk about sex. His name is
Thierry Mairot. Please copy and paste this onto your wall and warn all
your friends! Please everyone, Moms and Dads, repost and get him!!



 

Origins:   The above-quoted September 2010 alert about a person named Thierry Mairot who is supposedly contacting children through their Facebook social networking accounts to "talk about sex" appears to have originated with a French-language version:



ATTENTION AVIS AUX PARENTS DONT LES ENFANTS ON UN PROFIL FACEBOOK . UN HOMME ESSAYE DE RENTRER EN CONTACT AVEC EUX POUR PARLER DE SEXE IL SAPPELLE THIERRY MAIROT .PARTAGER CE MESSAGE SUR VOS MUR S.V.P

It has since been circulated in various English-language versions, such as the example cited above and the following:



To all parents whose children have a profile on facebook. There is a man trying to get in contact with children to talk about sex. His name is Thierry Mairot. Please pass on this message. Thanks.
 

ATTENTION ... To all parents whose children have a profile on facebook. There is a man trying to get in contact with children to talk about sex. His name is Thierry Mairot. Please copy and paste this onto your wall and warn all ur friends! Please everyone Moms and Dads ... repost and get him off of Facebook! Parents, Grandparents Aunts, Uncles and Cousins! EVEN if you have NO kids


We haven't found any information confirming that a person named Thierry Mairot is (or was) contacting children through Facebook to engage them in sexual conversations, and had such activity been going on, given how long and how widely these warning messages have been circulating surely Facebook would have long since been alerted to the situation.

This item appears similar in form to the long-running "Social Deviants" prank, in which the names of real persons are inserted into messages warning others against communicating with them via various social media.

Last updated:   3 October 2010

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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