Warning for parents after 12yo girl gets explicit messages in online game
The mother of a 12-year-old South Australian girl has issued a warning about a popular online game, after her daughter received explicit messages from a predator.
She says parents need to be aware of the dangers of internet gaming.
Roblox looks innocent enough using cartoon like characters made out of lego blocks, but as some players are discovering it’s anything but.
These are just some of the disturbing messages sent to a 12 year old girl from a predator who contacted her while she was playing the game. it’s believed some words were misspelt deliberately to disguise his profile.
The girl, who cannot be identified, was traumatised and her mother was horrified and the incident has raised serious concerns about seemingly harmless online games.
Child protection campaigner Sonya Ryan said anyone can interact with children within online games.
“You can basically walk up to another character and have a conversation,” Ms Ryan said.
But Ms Ryan says there are ways to avoid your child falling prey.
“Go into the settings, disable public chat function, do whatever you need to do with the settings to reduce the risk of your child being taken advantage of.
“There are so many users, it’s so faceless… you can be any age you want, you can be anyone you want to be and it takes a very short amount of time for a criminal to come into your home via an app and access your child and start a conversation.”
The girl’s mother says she immediately reported the incident to Roblox and they have since banned the player from the game.
