Reports of suggestive messages being sent to children through gaming platform

The Greater Sudbury Police Service Cyber Crime Unit would like to make the public aware of the following alert issued by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

“The Canadian Centre for Child Protection wants to make parents aware of concerns in a popular gaming environment called Roblox. Roblox is a user-generated gaming environment where children are encouraged to create adventures using their avatar, play games and connect with friends in this multi-player environment that claims to have over 44 million active users," said a GSPS news release.

"The Canadian Centre’s Cybertip.ca Program has received a number of reports concerning requests to meet up in person, and/or sexually suggestive chat messages being sent to children under the age of 12 within Roblox. Through the chat feature, children can easily be exposed to inappropriate conversations or redirected to inappropriate content on other sites. It is important for parents to be on alert with any app or site that offers direct messaging chat features.”

The Canadian Centre for Child Protection recommends that parents teach their children to:

Check with you before using new apps/games or sharing any information online. At this age, online interactions should always be supervised by a parent or safe adult.

Not respond or click on messages or links from someone they don’t know.

Tell you if they come across something or someone while playing an online game that makes them feel uncomfortable and that they can tell you without fear of getting in trouble.

Ask your permission before ever accepting a request from another gamer to move over to a video chatting site or other chat platform

Refer to cybertip.ca for further information on how to educate your children on Internet safety.