MUM-OF-TWO Julie Cook is so concerned about online safety she has moved the Xbox from upstairs into the living room.
The writer, 45, who lives with husband Cornel, 42, and their children Alex, 13, and Adriana, nine, in Hampshire, says: “I’d do anything to keep my children safe online. It took a bit of a scare to make me realise how important it was.
“Adriana first started playing on an online platform called Roblox when she was eight.
“Her brother always loved gaming and it felt wrong saying he could play and she couldn’t. At that age she didn’t have her own phone and I’d let her play it on mine.
“It seemed pretty tame – kids saving up ‘Robux’ (an online currency) to buy cute pets and then trade them with each other or adopt them. Adriana loved it and had lots of online animals.
“She also began to play on an Xbox. We let her go on it upstairs and she’d play Minecraft. Then, about six months ago, Alex got a new phone and his old one became Adriana’s ‘play phone’ for games.
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“She couldn’t call or text anyone but I thought it would be a good idea to let her have access to her Roblox on there. So I downloaded the game on her phone.
“One day she came downstairs looking worried. She was reading a line on the screen and showed me. It said, ‘Hello sexy…’. She’d been in a game where players can talk to each other.
“I snatched the phone away. I read up on it and realised people can talk to each other in the game, even if you disable chat rooms.
“It’s actually part of the game to play with strangers and trade pets. I’d been so naive not to realise.
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“I decided I needed to watch her at all times so I moved the Xbox console into the living room and told her she could only go on the phone when in the room with me.
“Knowing she is close by gives me peace of mind.”
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MAKE TIME FOR CHATS
SIR Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, says: “It’s not always easy talking to kids about what games they are playing and socials they’re using to stay in touch with their friends.
“Even the most tech-savvy parent will feel they are always playing catch-up.
“But with children going online from a younger age – and the spaces they are in more immersive – it’s important we don’t fall behind.
“It is good to stay in the know about what your child’s up to. The best way is by starting to have conversations about safety before they become immersed in an iPad.
“For younger children, try setting parental controls and exploring the games and apps they are using together. Talk about the positives and potential safety risks.
“There’s plenty of advice about how to do this on the NSPCC’s Online Safety Hub. Teenagers are naturally going to be more secretive. But by keeping chats going regularly about the games and apps they are using they’ll be more likely to come to you if something is wrong.
“It’s no different to talking about their day at school, what book they’re reading or how they played in their latest match.
“Some days you may get nothing out of them but when they have something to say they’ll know you’ll be there. Protecting children online shouldn’t be up to parents alone. The products our kids consume should be safe but big tech consistently puts profit first.
“The Government can fix this with its Online Safety Bill that would force tech firms to take children’s safety seriously. But it’s currently caught up in arguments in Westminster.
“The impact of delay is 100 online sex offences against children a day and sites awash with devastating material.”