I use my site to joke around and poke fun at a lot of things. My goal is to share knowledge and hopefully give my readers a quick chuckle at the sametime.
But a serious topic and one I’ll never joke about is child safety online.
One of the amazing things about the internet is that it literally gives children access to the world. One of the scariest things about the internet is that it literally gives the world access to children. Which is why we all most remember that, while at times it is convenient, we do not use the internet as a babysitter.
Former Rugby player Ian Morrison witnessed this first hand recently when he logged into Roblox as his 8-year-old son’s avatar and was almost immediately propositioned for sexual encounters.
Roblox is gaming site, similar to Minecraft, that invites children to “create adventures, play games, role play and learn with their friends” in a virtual world.
I liken it to the neighborhood park way back when kids used to play outside. This is where children congregate which, unfortunately, means this is where the predators look for prey.
If your child is young enough that you would not let them go to a park without an adult chaperone, they should not use the internet without one either. Just like you would go to the park to play games of catch or baseball with your child, you should play their games online with them as well.
Learn what games they play and what the safety settings and chat features are. Learn who they communicate with on the games and make sure they understand what information they should never share online.
Geeky Daddy Hack: Have your own server. Your children can invite their friends and you can control how gets approved and who doesn’t. An analogy for this would be your kids are inviting their friends over to play in the back yard, but only you have the key to the fence. Network server space can be rented or purchased.
You can read the full article of what happened with Ian here. I welcome you to read it but my goal here is not to simply regurgitate a story many of us have already heard.
More to remind all parents out there to stay vigilant and be as aware as possible of what your children are doing, and especially sharing, online.
Now that the seriousness is out of the way, to lighten the mood, here is a picture of Munchie hanging out with a napping Lil’ G-Man.
Geeky Daddy 