Viral Cat in the Hat trend sparks safety concerns

You might have heard of this. It's this viral cat in the hat social media trend and it's causing school safety concerns across the country. So now authorities here in Texas are alerting families about this dangerous trend. Fox 26's Jillian Hartman has that story for us tonight. Well in the past week I've seen a number of police departments and school districts in different parts of Texas warning families about this cat in the hat trend. Fox 26 has learned in South Texas, Premont police shared this post on Facebook saying the trend involves threatening or frightening messages directed towards schools, students and communities. In North Texas, Joshua ISD police say contains AI generated and digitally altered images and videos of the cat in the hat. Authorities say some posts show someone dressed as the cat in the hat making threatening statements and kids are editing, recreating and reposting these videos to make it look like the character was spotted near their school or neighborhood. Officials say so far more than 10 juveniles have been arrested nationwide. We spoke with a social media expert about how investigators can track down those responsible by using AI or other methods. When AI flags a conversation that is potentially dangerous that automatically is flagged and sent to law enforcement in a copy of all the location of the user, where is he connecting from, all that information is forward to law enforcement. Number two, when you're using social media and the algorithm on the social media network flags this as a potential threat that is the same case. Laredo police say these posts are not a joke. Authorities say anything online that contains a threat or causes fear within a school or community will be taken seriously and investigated. Depending on the circumstances, these actions could result in school discipline and criminal charges. At this time we have not seen any cases reported in the Houston area. Right now authorities are urging parents to talk to their kids about using social media responsibly and safely. You do have to have access to their cell phone, to their smart devices, to their social media, to everything they do. That's an important thing. Number two, you need to follow your kids on social media. Make sure you need to be able to watch their interactions in social media all the time, every time. Right now several law enforcement and school officials are monitoring the situation. We saw outside San Antonio that the city of divine police shared a post saying that this is disturbing. And then we saw outside Dallas that Whitesboro ISD and Rains ISD police shared a post warning families about this trend. I'm Jillian Hartman, Fox 26 News.