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How to Keep Child Predators Out of Virtual Playgrounds Like ‘Fortnite’ and ‘Minecraft’

There’s no perfect fix, but experts on moderation, sexual exploitation, and internet law tell OneZero there is hope

Will Oremus
OneZero
13 min readJan 16, 2020

Illustrations: Ana Kova

OOnline games that are wildly popular with kids, like Fortnite, Minecraft, Clash of Clans and Roblox, have become hunting grounds for pedophiles. Recent reporting suggests that by at least the thousands — and perhaps far more than that — kids are being groomed, cajoled, tricked, intimidated, or blackmailed into sending sexual images of themselves or others to predators who trawl gaming platforms and chat apps such as Discord for victims.

While there is often an element of moral panic at play when a new trend or technology poorly understood by adults is identified as a threat to children, an investigation by the New York Times made clear that the problem is real, widespread, and growing. If you’re still skeptical, a firsthand account of what it’s like to hunt predators from an employee at Bark, a startup that develops parental controls for online apps, illustrates just how pervasive the problem is on social media and messaging platforms. It’s impossible for a parent to read these stories without coming away alarmed about kids’ safety and well-being in the world of online gaming.

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OneZero
OneZero

Published in OneZero

OneZero is a former publication from Medium about the impact of technology on people and the future. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

Will Oremus
Will Oremus

Written by Will Oremus

Senior Writer, OneZero, at Medium

Responses (7)

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First and foremost I will state unequivocally that I classify all predators of human beings as creatures that require culling in the same manner that any natural threat to human life must be. When the predators themselves assume human form, then we…

And also did you even try minecraft to even comment about it and yuo suck from making this comment sex like literally animals and it even happens in the fucking world so shut the fuck up and quit the wotld

That’s a wonderful review! But I don’t think that any bigass company will be willing to do anything. Toxicity will remain.