AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) – A recent post by the Borger Police Department warned parents of a serial child predator targeting minors on apps like Roblox, Discord and Messenger.
Experts with The Bridge Children’s Advocacy Center want you to know this is happening here in our community.
“Yeah, it’s happening in our community. The pinwheels in front of our building are a testament to that. And with the internet, that horizon is only expanding. It’s definitely happening. If your child has access to the internet, they are talking to people that they don’t know or haven’t ever got to meet,” said Courtney Ma, forensic services supervisor.
However, there are ways to keep your children safe while online.
You can encourage your children to play their games or have their tablets or devices in a family environment, like the living room.
Ma says it’s also important to have conversations with your children before something bad happens.
“I think it’s really important to look out for, who are their friends on there? Are they chatting with people frequently? Are they only on their phone or playing their game by themselves in their room?” said Ma.
Ma says make sure they know to tell you if something makes them uncomfortable.
“But it’s also important to have these conversations of, ‘Hey, don’t share where we live. Don’t share information about our family. If someone’s asking you to do something that you’re uncomfortable with, you can always leave. It’s always important to tell me, tell a safe adult that something happened that made you feel uncomfortable,’” said Ma.
Predators are experts at convincing children to do what they want, and it may not look like what you expect.
“So the way this plays out, I don’t think is really what we expect it to be,” said Ma. “So it’s not a 40-year-old man telling the kid, ‘Hey I’m 40-years-old and I would like to see pictures of your body.’ That’s not what it looks like. A lot of times it’s a lot of conversations. It’s a lot of grooming there. It’s a lot of making that kid feel safe and comfortable with them. And that kid thinks, ‘Hey, this is another 9-year-old girl like me. She just lives in Illinois.’ And so they start there.”
The predators will make kids feel safe before asking for something inappropriate.
“They start with the grooming. They start getting to know them. They start making them feel comfortable and safe and then it will start progressing,” said Ma. “And what we’ve seen is that people will send photos that the perpetrator, the person committing the crimes against the child, they’re getting photos from other victims, from who knows where. They’re sending those photos to this child in order for that child to take similar photos or do similar acts and send it back to them.”
If you do find your child has had inappropriate conversations online, Ma says the important thing is to stay calm.
“If you find anything, you can talk to your child about it and say, ‘Hey, tell me about this conversation that you were having.’ It’s really important that you maintain your neutral, calm demeanor. It’s really important to try to stay as calm as possible and just say, ‘Thank you so much for telling me that.’ And you can tell them, ‘So, we’re going to have to talk to some people now that are going to be able to help us. Because what happened to you is not okay,’” said Ma.
If you think your child has been a victim of an online predator, call the child abuse hotline at 1-800-252-5400.
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