There are many stories of kids being kidnapped by someone they were chatting with online. One thing is common in these stories, the parents had no idea that interactions between their child and this stranger were even taking place. These interactions can take place even in places you might not immediately think about.

It is incredibly important for children to understand that they should NEVER give any personal information to anyone online, even if the person claims they know them. This includes giving out personal information to people they really do know in real life. Make sure they know that when they are chatting with a friend they actually know, there could be other people observing the chat that they do not know. I just always tell my children to never type any personal information online, no matter what.

Chat Within Online Games

The number one place kids have the opportunity to communicate with strangers is through online games. When your child is younger than 13 they are not allowed access to most social media sites. However, there are many online games that have social components that they are allowed to play with parental permission.

A few extremely popular online games include Roblox, Animal Jam, and Fortnite. All three include chat features that allow children to interact with strangers. Animal Jam has specific content filters in place to try and prevent overtly inappropriate text, but people do find ways around it. Since the ways to get around it get fairly obscure, most kids might not understand the true meaning behind what the other user is trying to say.

Roblox also tries to prevent inappropriate behavior, but their systems are not quite as robust as games geared towards little kids like Animal Jam or Club Penguin. We actually don’t even allow Roblox in our house because of how open the chat is. Make sure that your children know to report any strange conversations to the game and to a parent.

I always like to watch over my child’s shoulder from time to time while they are playing games with any type of social interaction. I read the conversation for a few minutes and then go about my day. If anything seems strange, I talk to them about why I didn’t like the conversation.

Be very aware of what games your children are playing, and whether or not the game has a chat component or function to it. If it does, then there is definitely an opportunity for them to talk to strangers.

Message Boards

My daughter really loves to role play, and she has discovered a new platform to play out her adventures. There are forums and the ability to respond to projects within Scratch. Many of these responses go on and on into elaborate role-playing games. There is also the opportunity for people to respond within apps like YouTube, where the comments on videos are almost always inappropriate.

We once had to change my daughter’s username on Animal Jam because of some comments she made on a YouTube video that allowed people to match her real name with her Animal Jam account. When children don’t realize how even innocent-seeming comments can lead to connections about their real identity, they can get into serious problems.

Make sure you know exactly what kind of comments your children are interacting with on various websites and apps. Even when there isn’t a specific chat feature within the application, there are still opportunities to communicate with strangers.

Social Media

This is probably the most obvious of the 3 options but can be just as dangerous. In a quest to get the most likes and the most followers to prove their popularity, many kids will accept friend or follow requests from strangers. So even private accounts could have strangers able to view their content. Then kids take it a step further and post various “questions” or quizzes on their social platform that gives people the chance to find out personal information about them. My niece, one day, posted a quiz of some sort on Instagram. It was basically a “prove how well you know me” kind of quiz. Respondents replied with what school she goes to, what her favorite color is, and more. Someone that she doesn’t know in real life can use that information to track them down very easily.

Social media accounts usually come equipped with private messaging features now too. So within these applications strangers could be reaching out to them over a private message to start a conversation. Make sure they do not interact with people they don’t 100% know in person. Also, help them understand that even if they do know the person, someone could have created a fake account using their friend’s information. While they don’t need to be wary of all friends that contact them, help them understand some warning signs that the friend might not be their friend.

Basically, help your children understand that any conversation that makes them feel uncomfortable should be reported to an adult right away.