Following the case last week of a missing Roosevelt girl who was eventually found with an adult man she met on a virtual reality app, Roosevelt City Police Department is sharing information and resources with the community about internet safety and what needs to be done to keep children and youth safe from predators online. “Predators are aware of the fact that children are spending more time online and unfortunately exploit that,” shares Roosevelt PD. “With the rapid advancement of technology [comes] the proliferation of new apps and game programs that you may never consider to be hazardous, such as virtual reality platforms. Virtual reality apps have a number of features, including chat rooms and games. Users can create avatars of themselves and can portray whatever image they wish, meaning you have no way of knowing their true identity. Chats can be moved into a ‘private room’, out of sight of other users. This enhanced visual environment could potentially be used to encourage young people to share information or images without fully knowing who they’re sharing them with.” So what should parents and guardians do, especially considering that young people tend to be tech savvy and often know how to conceal their online activities? Roosevelt Police has compiled a detailed list of popular apps that predators can use to gain access to children and information on the different ways that predators groom their targets and sometimes even the target’s parents. They have also provided a list of websites with resources for online safety, including a site on how to choose the right software to monitor online activities. Reach out to the Roosevelt Police Department if you have any concerns about your child’s online activities. Link below to access the full report.
https://www.rooseveltcity.com/342/Virtual-Reality-Online-Safety
