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A concerned mum has issued a warning after spotting her eight-year-old child had connected with more than 50 strangers in a popular gaming app.

Michaela O’Rourka’s son Jake had been playing on the Roblox app for three weeks before realising that the game contained a messaging option.

“It was a shock to know that there was a chat feature on it,” said the 25-year-old, from Thorntree, Middlesbrough.

“I didn’t realise until I read about it on Facebook.

“I know there are a lot of other parents who haven’t realised there is chat on it too.

“Everyone needs to be aware of it, because there are kids who are five or six years old. It just looks like a Lego game.”

She said the game, aimed at children aged between eight and 12 years old, could be used by adults looking to meet up with children.

“It is too easy for people to message,” she said. “Some younger kids think it is a computer talking to you.

“My son didn’t realise that the people on there could be strange older people. He didn’t realise he was doing anything wrong.”

Earlier this week, a mother from Fife discovered her six-year-old daughter had received sinister messages on the app from men trying to lure her to their homes. And an eight-year-old from Sunderland received a message saying ‘Hello cupcake, do you want to meet up?’.

Although Michaela only found messages saying ‘hi’ and arranging times to play, she feared one of the players on Jake’s list of contacts could have been 31.

She said: “You make your name up. One of the names had what looked like a date of birth - 1986 - next to it.”

Michaela said the popular game offers no way to screen contacts or disable the chat option.

She has now deleted the app and urges other parents to do the same.

She added: “It is too easy. Children on that could be manipulated so easily.

“All it takes is for someone to access their account. It is dangerous. You can’t stop anyone from talking to you kids.

“There’s no way to stop it.”

On their website, the developer says: “Roblox was originally designed for 8 to 18 year olds, but is open to people of all ages and appeals to many age groups.

“The majority of players are 8-12, but some of our seasoned developers who design and build games are in their 20s.”

A spokesman for Roblox said: “The safety of our community is a top priority and we’re constantly assessing and improving our trust and safety measures.

“There are several safeguards in place to protect our users that utilize current technology and human oversight.

“All accounts for users that are under the age of 13 are set to only communicate with friends. Only friends in the approved friend’s list can personal message, invite another user into games, or to join a VIP server.”