Real Life Stories
Be Careful Of Who You Talk To
A 12-year-old boy met someone in a chat area of an online game. The boy decided he wanted to meet his new online gaming friend in person. The boy told his mother about his new online acquaintance. The child's mother used the Internet to seek additional information regarding her son's new online gaming friend. She discovered that her son's new gaming friend described himself as an "Internet predator" of children on his social networking site.
What does this mean?
Sexual offenders may target online games that have chat rooms including interactive web games on computers, and video games played through consoles with access to the Internet. They also use three-dimensional animated characters, referred to as "avatars," to engage youth in online conversations.
What can I do?
- Teach students about what is meant by personal information and where on the Internet they may be asked for it.
- Teach students that not everyone is who they say they are, and that people can be older or younger than what they say they are.
- Explain to students that they should tell a safe adult if threatened to do something they don’t want to do over chat, or if someone is making them feel uncomfortable.
- Teach kids to trust their instincts — that if they feel a situation is potentially unsafe, it probably is.
- Explain to students that they should never meet in person someone they first meet online without a parent or guardian.
- Check out our Popular Activities section for more information on technologies being used by children and how to make them safer, and our Healthy Friendships and Unhealthy Friendships sections to learn more about how to speak to children about who are real, true friends online and offline.