Increased numbers of children are vulnerable to predatory behavior online, especially through multi-player internet games such as Roblox.
Regis Billings is the associate director for Cyber Operations at Tennessee Tech. Billings said being involved in your child’s life online is the first crucial step in providing protection.
“Sometimes, that’s difficult as a parent, because we want them to be good at ball, we want them to be good at grades, but now there’s this other area that we might not be familiar with,” Billings aid.
Billings said privacy features on apps like Snapchat, Telegram or Instagram instantly deleting messages after sending can create more obstacles for parents and law enforcement agencies.
Billings said the accessibility to and sheer volume of minors playing games entices child predators to the site. Since video game companies are largely focused on gameplay, Billings said monitoring online chat rooms is not their first priority, leading to multiple child exploitation cases stemming from online video games.
Billings said while companies expect adult users to act appropriately online, they also expect parents to supervise their child’s online activity.
“On the contrary, it seems like it’s the parents that are almost expecting the video game to ‘babysit’ the kids for them,” Billing said. “And so there’s this real disconnect of expectations.”
Billings said the lack of monitoring from parents and logging of chat activity from gaming platforms can cause predatory behavior to go unnoticed. Recently, investigators have seen a rise in “sextortion” crimes, where perpetrators blackmail underage children into sending explicit content.
“The bad guys have kind of figured this out over their use of different platforms over the years,” Billings said. “And we’ve seen it really evolve.”
In his household, Billings said his kids understand that their parents can go through their phone at any moment.
“They don’t know when we’re going to ask. So they don’t know potentially, notionally, when to delete,” Billings said. “But if the app is doing it for them, then it’s automatic. They don’t have to think about things.”
As an experienced ethical hacker, Billings said being involved with your children’s gaming experience and surveying who they talk to online is the best way to limit harm to your family, and said anyone being extorted should know that they are a victim of a crime and should get help.
“As an investigator for the federal government, it’s heartbreaking in a lot of situations, because parents really feel like they’re taking a lot of these appropriate steps to safeguard their children and monitor chat,” Billings said. “And what you’re driving toward is the truth — and that’s that the apps kinda take away their ability to safeguard the kids.”
Cumberland County Sheriffs Officials reported an increase in reports from concerned residents about these predatory messages over the last several weeks.
