Is your child safe online?
Cases of cybercrimes against children have been on the increase for years as more and more children enjoy access to the Internet.
In today's technological world, the Internet offers incredible opportunities for education and entertainment, but it also exposes children to significant dangers.Some people think Namibia is still lagging in terms of technology and that the threats of the online world do not apply here.
However, the reality is that no child with access to the Internet is immune. Even seemingly innocent spaces, such as video games, can become a breeding ground for sexual predators, including those who want to sexually exploit children.
As the digital landscape expands globally, so do the risks, and Namibian parents must realise that their children are just as vulnerable as anyone else in the world.
According to a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that was issued in December 2022, the police, educators, doctors and mental health workers worldwide have realised that it is essential that children are protected in this developing technology-rich society.
"More and more children and younger children are now connected to the Internet. More and more perpetrators are also connected. Cases have increased and online child safety has become a huge problem," a paediatrician from Morocco, Najat Maalla M'jid, said in an interview with UN News.
Many professionals have used their experiences to design new strategies to secure children and this has led to a huge growth in the research literature on digital dangers and their dynamics in the last few years.
One company that recently introduced moderation rules to try to curb the dangers to children is Meta - the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.
Although Meta recently announced that it will create safer Instagram accounts for teenagers, this feature will only apply to Namibian users from January, Meta's director for communications in Africa, the Middle East and Türkiye, Kezia Anim-Addo, confirmed last month.
Furthermore, Namibia's Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with LifeLine/Childline Namibia in support of an online platform where child pornography and sensitive visual material in which children appear can be reported.
Despite numerous efforts, elsewhere and locally, the dangers are still a reality and they appear on platforms where one would not necessarily expect them.
Roblox
Online video games are a great way for kids to play with friends at a distance, be creative and imaginative, and learn skills like hand-eye coordination.
However according to Morgan Dye of Gabb Now - the leading provider of safe technology for children and teenagers, Gabb's online platform that provides free education to empower parents and children - it's not always fun.
"According to the FBI, as many as 500 000 sexual predators are active online every day targeting children between the ages of 12 and 15. Video game platforms offer sexual predators a convenient place to lure children. Children should be wary when playing games, as sometimes the hunter pretends to be someone they are not," Gabb Now's article reads.
According to a recent article by Hindenburg Research, published on 8 October, there is one online video game in particular that is being used to target children. This popular game is Roblox and it is also available in Namibia.
In August 2020, the American business magazine Fast Company documented sex-themed digital games published by player developers on the Roblox platform.
The article investigated a series of so-called "condo" games for which there were little or no age restrictions and where children could participate in simulated sex acts and play with digital sex toys.
In the same year, The Daily Mail reported that Roblox exposes children to the risk of sexual predators and may also be unsafe due to high levels of sexual and racist content.
As recently as April of this year, the National Centre on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) included Roblox on its list of entities that facilitate, enable, and even profit from sexual abuse and exploitation.
In July this year, Bloomberg Businessweek also published a report highlighting that children are at risk of being exposed to paedophiles on the Roblox platform.
Put to the test
“To test Roblox's content moderation, we created a new user and listed our age as under 13 to see if younger users are protected from illegal content on the platform.
“Note that the process only took seconds, as Roblox has no apparent approach to age verification for users who claim to be under 17.
“Using the Roblox search function, we typed in “Adult” to see what Roblox would filter out of a potentially harmful search. We found a group titled "Adult Studios" with 3 334 members as of May 2024," says a recent article by Hindenburg Research.
It further explains that this group was allegedly used to openly request sexual favours and nude photos from others.
“In these Roblox chat groups, we found active child exploitation marketplaces where users would lure children by offering Robux, the platform's in-game currency.
“Since May 2024, we have found at least 38 Roblox groups where users openly solicited sexual favours and/or exchanged nude photos among themselves.
“Note that we stopped looking for 38. There are many more," the article says, adding that most of these groups have since been shut down and made inactive, but that doesn't seem to have stopped the creation of new groups."
According to them, there is no limit on who can join these groups, as they were able to access them with an eight-year-old's account.
"In addition to serving as a marketplace for child exploitation, Roblox also has a large community that uses the platform for erotic role-playing," claims Hindenburg Research.
Safeguards
Roblox has safeguards in place intended to make the platform safer for children. Parents can also enable parental controls to monitor their child's activities and restrict accounts from chatting with unknown individuals or playing unapproved online games.
“When implemented effectively and strictly monitored by parents, these protocols can make the environment significantly safer. However, we found that many of these settings are not implemented by default, and there are major loopholes.
"The account of a child under nine can set up their own account's parental controls that allow that child to change their allowed experiences to the 13+ age group and disable restrictions on the platform," according to the article.
The investigators from Hindenburg Research themselves created an account for a child younger than nine and found that parental control can be easily bypassed by creating another account and simply changing the age.
“Roblox didn't try to verify our age or care we simply created a new account on the same device as an account for a child under nine.
"Despite Roblox offering a platform that says it engages approximately 40 million users under the age of 16 daily, as of 2023 logins, their content restrictions and parental controls appear to be easily circumvented and rendered ineffective."
In a detailed report by the WHO, they refer to the term "online violence against children". This includes cyber and sexual harassment, cyberbullying, pornographic images and sexual exploitation. In this report, they point to the fact that acquaintances and friends are the most common offenders.
"Initial prevention efforts often emphasized stranger danger. However, numerous studies and police records show that acquaintances are more often perpetrators in cases of online violence against children, more than strangers."
In this report, the WHO outlined strategies to prevent online violence against children.
Prevention strategies
Education: Providing information aimed at children and their parents. Internet safety programs have been developed all over the world for online access, home education and use by schools.
Legislation: New laws have already been introduced to criminalise "grooming" behaviour, expanding crimes into the online domain and requiring technology companies to report online violations and remove illegal content.
Law enforcement and regulation: Many countries have trained police on how to detect and investigate online crimes against children. Special centres for reporting can also be set up.
Awareness raising: Direct communication with the community at large can be used to reduce cases of online violence against children. This may include public awareness campaigns about children's online safety.
Helplines: Helplines accessible by phone or online offer help to child victims, concerned family members and friends.
Safer environments: A growing concept is to create and design user platforms and technology environments that are safer for children. – [email protected]