Reader Email: My 13yo son loves Roblox. I became suspicious when I could hear him talking softly into his computer …

Rebecca,

I just wanted to reach out and thank you for the work you do for our tweens and teens.

I read your post on FB at the beginning of this week about a 13year old girl that had been tricked into sending nude images online.

I too have a 13 year old so I took particular interest in the story.

My son loves playing, making games and creating 3D models in Roblox. He makes the models and uses the skills of other Roblox community members to help build the games he designs.

The evening of the day that I had read your post, I became suspicious when I could hear my son talking softly into his computer in his room (he was supposed to be getting ready for bed), when I asked who he was talking to, he quickly named a random friend but had a very guilty look on his face. I played it cool but after he had gone to bed we did a spot check on his phone and laptop.

Over a 4 day period on the weekend and beginning of this week there were hundreds and hundreds of messages from a user called Bob. The kind of messages you read and feel sick to your stomach. 

I did lots of research that night as to how we should handle the situation. 

We decided to say the family was having a tech detox for the day (I didn’t want any evidence to be destroyed if Bob got wind of the fact he was busted grooming my son.) So my husband took my son out for the day 4wdriving – they had an awesome day together. 

That night we had a family meeting over the dinner table just to remind the kids about online safety and all the points you mentioned. We then had a private chat with my son – let him know it wasn’t his fault and he wasn’t in trouble etc. When he heard this reassurance there were tears all round and we got this information out of him…

At the beginning of 2023 (Jan school holidays) he met a user named Bob who offered to help build his games (scripting). He was paid in Robux.

In the last few days (since Sun 25/6/23) my son says Bob has been acting weird and was asking leading questions about his height and his age and asked for reveals – face, hand, leg. 

My son hasn’t sent any pictures. 

Bob has voice called in Discord 5 times during this time, 2 of which my son has spoken, the other times he was muted. Bob had also said he’d like to do some scripting for free (because he was a nice guy). I asked my son what he was wanting in return for the free script – he said he hadn’t told him yet.

This creep preyed on the vulnerabilities of my son, my skin crawls to think of how differently this could have ended if I hadn’t been reminded to be vigilant from your post.

Today we gathered lots of evidence and screen shots of all his other SM details and have filed a report with the police. My son said he felt so powerful blocking this user from all of his accounts. 

My son is one of those kids that you can rely upon, does his homework, flies under the radar, just a pretty good kid most of the time. 

It’s a massive wakeup call for us and so I just wanted to encourage you to keep doing what you’re doing – you never know the impact it will have on someone’s life! x

Thanks

** If you discover your child has been groomed online, report it to the Police. You can find information about online safety at the Office of E-Safety and Think U Know. I also encourage you to follow Safe On Social and Cyber Safety Solutions with Susan McLean