Imagine discovering that your 14-year-old daughter is communicating on Roblox with a new teenage friend, who, in reality, is an adult predator using voice-changing technology to disguise his voice.
You’d naturally be shocked, appalled, and even afraid that it was so easy for a predator to target your daughter on a popular gaming platform.
A predator in his 40s did exactly that. He was already a registered sex offender when Louisiana authorities caught him communicating with the teen girl. According to We Protect Global Alliance, conversations with children on gaming platforms can escalate into high-risk grooming situations within 19 seconds, with the average grooming time being 45 minutes.
This story illustrates how easy it is for predators to connect with unsuspecting children and highlights the crucial need for diligent effort to prevent this scenario from happening to other children.
While parents are the first line of defense to protect their children from online harms, many are overwhelmed and often ill-equipped to keep up with the cyber-parenting demands of the evolving digital world. They must understand that no online child is immune to disguised predators who hunt their victims anonymously on popular gaming and social media platforms. Grooming is the process by which an online predator or trafficker befriends and gains the trust of a child to take advantage of the child for sexual purposes or financial gain, as in the case of sextortion.
Parents should be alert to warning signs that their child may be in contact with an online predator, especially if their child becomes secretive or obsessive about online activities, gets angry when he or she can’t get online, receives/makes phone calls from people you do not know or recognize, changes screens or turns off computer when an adult enters a room, withdraws from family and friends, or receives gifts, mail, or packages from someone you do not know.
The threats are widespread. A 2025 Thorn study found that 1 in 4 (25 percent) youth under 18 surveyed reported receiving an online solicitation to exchange sexual imagery, engage in sexual talk, or participate in a sexual interaction over the internet in return for something of value. And 15 percent of young people reported engaging in at least one such transactional sexual experience as a minor. Among those who engaged in these exchanges, 58 percent received money, 33 percent received social opportunities, 28 percent received material goods like clothing or beauty products, and nine percent received gaming currency.
The real-life tragedies keep stacking up. A Maryland man coerced more than 100 children worldwide — some as young as five — to send him sexually explicit videos through Snapchat, Instagram, Skype, Discord, and Roblox. A federal grand jury indicted a Rhode Island man for allegedly communicating with a minor female on several social media platforms, enticing her to send him photographs of herself, and meeting with her to “engage in illicit sexual activity.” In Southern California, 265 alleged child predators were arrested in a sting dubbed Operation Spring Cleaning and accused of using social media and online platforms to lure young victims.
These stats represent real children, someone’s daughter or son, who are no match for skilled predators. The online exploitation of children is a national pandemic requiring immediate action. While elected officials at the federal level recognize the need for legislative solutions, Congress has been slow to pass the dozens of internet child safety bills introduced by the Senate over the past few years. Many state governments are moving faster, and some have passed legislation to restrict children and teens’ social media access, limit smartphone use in schools, require age-verification for porn sites, restrict AI chatbots for children, and require Big Tech to design their platforms to ensure child safety.
New research found that 88 percent of adults are concerned about the online sexual exploitation of children; 83 percent say the government must require tech companies to prevent child abuse on their platforms; 99 percent want lawmakers to prioritize this issue. Enough Is Enough joined over 100 NGO groups urging Congress to pass The Stop CSAM Act, which would enable survivors to seek justice, increase transparency from tech platforms, strengthen law enforcement tools and enhance protections for survivors.
And it's past time for Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act, the Senate version that includes the Duty of Care provision and provides stronger protections than the House version. Kids are being irreparably harmed, and many are dying.
Big Tech is the Big Tobacco of the digital age, deliberately putting profits over safety and designing platforms to be highly addictive. Too often, platforms like Meta and Apple roll out supposed reforms and safety measures moments before a Congressional hearing or before a lawsuit goes to trial. These “too little too late” and “self-regulation” excuses aren't working. Big Tech companies need to be held accountable and responsible by the government and law enforcement, or face serious fines and consequences when they are not.
A 2025 C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital national survey of top health concerns of parents found they are overwhelmingly most concerned about their children’s social media use (75 percent), screen time (75 percent), and internet safety (66 percent).
These stats and stories underscore the reality of an increasingly toxic online culture: parents cannot and should not have to fight this war alone against grooming, sexual exploitation, or other online harms to protect their children. Enforcing and funding existing laws, passing new laws, and regulating multibillion-dollar Big Tech giants are the government's roles. The Supreme Court states that the Government has a compelling interest to protect vulnerable children. This Internet Safety Month, it's time for federal and local government authorities to do their job. Children’s lives are hanging in the balance.
Donna Rice Hughes, President and CEO of Enough Is Enough®®, is an internationally known internet safety expert, author, speaker, media commentator, producer, and host of the Emmy Award-winning PBS Internet Safety series and host of the podcast, “Internet Safety, with Donna Rice Hughes.”