WOOD COUNTY, Ohio — Kids these days have endless opportunities for entertainment and opportunities to interact with friends online.
But when it comes to letting their kids online, parents should remain vigilant.
Experts say parents should be vigilant even on "kid-friendly" platforms.
"The playground is these apps. These kids congregate on these apps and where there are children congregating, the predators are right there behind or sometimes out in front," said Charles McDonald, Wood County Assistant Prosecutor and chair of the Wood County Crimes Against Children Task Force.
Earlier this week, a report from Hindenburg Research stated that the online platform Roblox is a landscape for pedophiles and cyber predators.
Using the open-world game to reach children another way, while also taking advantage of Roblox's sandbox style.
"Roblox is interesting in the fact that it can allow users to create its own content," McDonald said. "Users can create their own games and those games can include adult themes like violence, or sex or drugs."
For parents of kids who play Roblox, McDonald suggests keeping an eye on what games they are playing, as well as making sure kids aren't getting unsolicited messages or getting coerced to contact potential predators in other apps or in the real world.
"The people who prey on children know the apps that are the most secure and the most protected and they'll try to switch the conversation into those types of platforms," McDonald said.
Experts say it is important to let parents know the dangers kids face on the internet, no matter how innocent it looks.
"It's not out of sight out of mind with the kid in the bedroom on the screen time. You have to be active and you have to know the dangers that are out there," McDonald said. "Anywhere that kids congregate, you're going to find people who want to prey on them and this is a huge online playground for children."
Roblox provided the following statement in response to the Hindenburg Research report: