“We are investigating several inquiries into the luring of minors through online gaming platforms, including Roblox,” stated Carla Costa from the National Unit for Combating Cybercrime and Technological Crime (UNC3T), emphasizing that these platforms have users as young as eight.
Fortnite and Discord are other games and platforms that, according to the chief inspector, are exploited by predators.
Highlighting that these platforms involve player interaction, Costa further explained that children sometimes believe they are conversing with peers, while in reality, they are communicating with adults.
“The conversations start with questions related to the game itself, and then these victims are transferred to other kinds of platforms, such as end-to-end encrypted ones,” where “intimate content” is requested from them, described the UNC3T investigator.
Although the police have no systematic data, the chief inspector notes an intensification of the phenomenon, linked to “the number of hours children spend online gaming.”
“If in the real world we tell our children not to talk to strangers, we don’t exercise the same caution and concern in the virtual world. And this is what needs to change. Parents need to be aware that just because a child or teenager is in their room doesn’t mean they are safe,” warned Carla Costa.
Monitoring children’s and teenagers’ online activity, including observing or even prohibiting conversations with people they only know virtually, and informing minors not to share personal data and to report to a trusted adult if approached in an “unusual or uncomfortable” manner, are among the recommendations made by Costa to parents and other adult family members.
The investigator also urged that these incidents be reported to the authorities, specifically to the police.
“There are several variables that contribute to the success or failure of our investigations, but fortunately, we have had some successful cases,” concluded the chief inspector of UNC3T.
