Parents are being warned of a growing grooming threat facing children in online gaming forums.
Predators are increasingly exploiting chat functions to target young people in what police describe as a troubling global trend.
In the UK, the Children’s Society has warned that children and young people are spending more time on games such as Fortnite and Minecraft than ever before, often playing and communicating with strangers in online competitions.
“Like anything online, it opens up more opportunities for young people to be in contact with someone they don’t know,” the charity has said.
“As online gaming becomes more popular, so do reports of them being used to groom and exploit young people.”
Locally, the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service urges parents to be aware that the traditional concept of “stranger danger” has evolved. Instead of overt approaches, offenders may pose as children in online forums to build trust and “make friends” before attempting to exploit young users.
Detective Chief Inspector Lorraine Roberts said children can now be accessed in ways that are less visible to parents and caregivers.
“What we notice is that it’s easier to access children now,” she said. “Children on their PlayStation at home, on Snapchat – loads of different platforms.”
She said that when she was growing up, children were warned not to talk to strangers offering sweets, but today parents often do not know who their children are speaking to online.
“So my advice to anybody is: Start talking to your children,” Roberts said. “Have those open conversations.”
She encouraged parents to speak frankly with children about what they share online, particularly with people they have never met in person. This might not be your boyfriend or your girlfriend,” she said. “This might be an older person pretending to be a child. So have those conversations to prevent it happening in the first place.”
Detective Superintendent Richard Barrow said police have seen cases in Cayman involving this type of behaviour.
He said investigations are often more complex when offenders are overseas, but police work through international law-enforcement networks to trace online activity and share intelligence with partners such as the UK’s National Crime Agency and International Watch Foundation.
In 2016, the Cayman Islands was one of 13 British Overseas Territories to have an Internet Watch Foundation reporting portal established. The portal is a safe and anonymous way to send reports directly to the IWF’s expert analysts, who then assess imagery and have any illegal content removed from the internet.
- Additional reporting by Philipp Richter
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