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Meeting people online is commonplace, so will Nev Schulman, host of MTV‘s Catfish: The TV Show be comfortable allowing his kids to have Internet friends someday?

Schulman recently pondered this question with Showbiz Cheat Sheet in preparation that his three children, who are still very young, could someday connect with others online. His answer was nothing short of a classic dad response.

Catfish’s Nev Schulman shares how he will deal with his kids making online friends

Schulman was famously dupped by a woman he met online. The journey was documented in the 2010 film Catfish, and the notion of a false online persona became a cultural and societal phenomenon. Schulman was 24 years old when he was “catfished” by a woman who took Schulman on a journey of deception and lies. After Schulman’s documentary aired, others came forward, sharing that they too had experienced something similar. As a result, Catfish: The TV Show was born.

Nev Schulman, Cleo, Beau, Laura Perlongo, Ami Schulman and Robert Schulman attended an art show in 2019
Nev Schulman, Cleo, Beau, Laura Perlongo, Ami Schulman and Robert Schulman | Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Now Schulman is a father and the stakes are a little higher when it comes to his children. “I think I’ll just always make sure to do a full background check on anybody that they may interact with,” he said somewhat joking (somewhat not). “They’ll just know if you meet someone on the Internet, come to dad, let him do his thing, and run the numbers. And if everything looks good then we’re all set.”

‘Catfish’ was still the ‘best thing that ever happened to me,’ Nev said

While Schulman is going to monitor his children’s online activity he added, “But at the same time, meeting a stranger online and getting catfished was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“I think people need to have their own experiences and make their own mistakes,” he said.

Catfish co-host Kamie Crawford wasn’t exactly on the same page. “I don’t think my future kids are going to be using the Internet,” she laughed. “I think we are gonna have a family computer, like what I grew up with.” But she then dropped this bomb: “But I was still in chatrooms! Catfishing, lying about my age.”

Kamie Crawford shares a shocking story that prepared her for ‘Catfish’

While Schulman was catfished online, Crawford said she too was catfished but in real life. “So I definitely have been in situations where, in particular, one really long friendship that I had where the person lied to me about everything,” she revealed. “From faking an engagement to where they were traveling. Like talking to me as if they were in a different time zone when they really were down the street. It was chaos. It was insanity.”

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“I really think that situation prepped me for this show,” she continued. “Because now I don’t know if I’m cynical or I don’t know what it is, but now I don’t believe anything. I don’t believe anything or anyone [laughs]. So, yeah, it can happen. It happens. And, we see it all the time when we love people and care about people. It doesn’t just have to be romantic relationships either because that was just a friendship and it happened to me and can happen to anybody.”

Schulman seemed to be a little stunned to hear Crawford’s story. But that explains why she often seems skeptical on the show – and why she’s probably going to be very involved in her future children’s computer usage.

A new season of Catfish: The TV Show is on MTV every Tuesday at 8 pm ET.

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