ORLANDO, Fla — The video game “Fortnite” has about 650 million registered players. But there is another side to games like this - a side some call “a hunting ground for kids.”
That’s a lesson from Alina Donahue. She was in her 20s when she was exploited and trafficked. She is free from that life now and spends time educating others about the dangers for young women.
She says the biggest threat now is not on the streets, but in the home.
“What do you think is the biggest threat now? Gaming? With kids, yeah, 100%. I’s these gaming apps. These apps you just don’t know who you are talking to,” Donahue said.
Donahue says games like “Roblox," “Fortnite” and “Call of Duty" are some of the popular games kids are playing, and that puts them at risk.
For example, Valenino McFarland was arrested last month police say he groomed a young boy on a gaming app. Police said he threatened to kill that 11-year-old boy if he didn’t do what he wanted.
And the story is not unusual.
“Offenders, predators are really lurking on any platform that children are present on. I get asked quite a bit by parents, like, well, what gaming platform is safe. Or what social media platform is safe,” said Jim Cole, a retired Homeland Security special agent.
Cole has spent decades identifying and rescuing kids around the world. And he says the answer is none of them are really safe unless parents have a watchful eye and open communication.
Predators use things like gaming currency to build trust, then use that trust to get pictures. Those pictures can be then shared online.
But now predators are taking it a step further by using artificial intelligence to create fake images of child pornography and then using it to blackmail the children in those images.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there were more than 7,000 reports of AI being used to sexually exploit children over the last two years.
AI advocates say that is a data point, not the full picture.
The AI-generated material comes in all forms. Predators can use it to change faces, voices and even the sexual acts, all by typing in a few words, using things like text-to-image AI.
It is illegal, but even the laws have not caught up making it harder and harder to protect kids.
To help protect them, talk about the dangers and advise them to only play with people they know and in an open room in the house. Make sure they never share personal information or photos and disable chat functions.
And always make sure your kids can come to you and police if they need to.
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