Location: NC
I made a throwaway to ask this question because it feels wrong even typing it out. I don’t have enough karma to post on the parenting subreddit, otherwise I would have posted it there.
My partner’s daughter is an incredibly sweet girl to the point of being a people pleaser. However, her best friend, is incredibly manipulative. We’ve been having more issues with her these last few months and today it came to a head today when my partner was going through her daughter’s phone and found a nude photo sent to her best friend. When she asked her daughter about it, she told her mom that her friend threatened to end the friendship if she didn’t which is why she did it. This happened when we dropped her off for a playdate with the other parent in the house, but it sounds like this happened while they were in the room together.
A little background; her daughter’s friend has continuously used manipulative tactics on her. She constantly threatens to end the friendship, amongst other concerning behavior. This has gotten to the point that my partner stopped allowing her daughter to play online/communicate with her unless she is in the room as well. My partner would try to push her towards other friendships, but this “best friend” has been the one to stick around.
Today, my partner had to pick up her daughter from summer camp because her best friend had gotten ahold of her phone and messaged “Fuck you, Daddy” to the father, which is when this was discovered. We believe this was in response to her daughter being “grounded” from her friend for a day because he overheard her trying to manipulate her.
We’re already planning to talk to the best friend’s mother tonight and tell her what we found. My partner’s daughter is no longer allowed to have any communication with her, we’re blocking her from anything that would enable them to communicate, and we’re going to ask the school to not place them in the same classes this coming school year (this isn’t the first time a parent will have asked for their child to be separate from this little girl)
What other steps do we need to take in this? We don’t feel comfortable contacting the police, and we’re worried that it could come back on her since it’s from her phone. We’re scared that this little girl has shared this picture with only God-knows-who. I can’t find any similar situations with kids this young.