I’ve attended a seminar for child protection before that was delivered by a former cop (that worked in the sex crimes division) and they said the exact same thing - in the context of correctly making the distinction between paedophile and sex offender.

Sounds like he was grooming her.

I often wonder how those people function in the real world.

I put it in quote marks. Obviously I’m not actually forced to use it, but my entire family uses it and it’s the dominant messaging platform in Indonesia - to the point where people get annoyed with you if you send regular SMS or just end up replying to you on WhatsApp. A lot of businesses large and small also exclusively use it, so you’re causing yourself a lot of annoyance if you actively avoid WhatsApp. It’s a crap situation, but it’s reality in some countries.

Some people are ‘forced’ to use WhatsApp due to it being the messaging platform of choice for a lot of people.