Are Your Kids Talking To Strangers?

On line Games

Can Lead To

Sex Talk

A Nanaimo parent was given a wake up call last night after he found his 12 year daughter exchanging emails with a 22 year old male who she admitted to meeting online while playing a video game.

The relationship between the two was accidentally discovered by the child’s father after he entered his daughter’s room and saw her typing on her laptop. After seeing her father, she quickly closed up her computer. Sensing something wasn’t right, the father took the computer and saw that his daughter had been chatting with a male, who he later found out was actually 22. The father then learned his daughter had been exchanging emails to a Gmail account with the man for the past two months.The two he discovered, had met on line while playing a video game called “Resident Evil 5”, a video game popular amongst the 12-14 year olds but often played by older teenagers and adults alike.

“Unfortunately, this type of situation is far to common and often leads to inappropriate sexual talk and in some cases personal contact with the adult”, said Constable Gary O’Brien, media spokesperson for the Nanaimo RCMP. On line games need to be monitored since the player has no way of verifying the age of the other person involved.The best way to avoid these types of situations from developing is to keep computers in public areas that are frequently accessed by other family members.

“You would never allow a complete stranger, let alone an adult, into your child’s bedroom. Having said that, why is it then okay to allow laptops or computers to be in your child’s room?” said O’Brien.

For information to assist you with this issue, go on line to  www.safekids.com or to www.bc.rcmp.ca for current articles on Internet Safety.