Kidas detects cases of threats on a daily basis. These are a few noteworthy Kidas cases.
Children all over the United States and all over the world, are more exposed than they have ever been before. Parents are doing their best to protect their children in every way they know how, but children are learning about technology and at advanced pace, one that their parents are unlikely to catch up on. Raising children in a digital world is a huge undertaking, one that is very scary.
20% of students between the ages of 12-18 are being bullied. While parents used to worry about their children being bullied at school, bullying is now taking place within the walls of their own homes due to technology. Children are being cyberbullied daily through text, online chats, in video games and the list goes on. They types of toxic gaming behavior that takes place online is detrimental to children. Most of it is being kept from parents from fear of no longer being able to play video games or their time being limited. Many children are unaware of the risks associated with what they are doing online.
Kidas gives children the freedom to continue playing video games while giving parents the support and peace of mind that they need to keep their children safe online. This past month, Kidas detected some very dangerous cases.
Case 1 – Extreme Cyberbullying
A group of 11 year old boys were playing video games together online. These boys went to school together and were in the same class. Due to online learning, they had not seen one another in person for quite sometime, none the less, they all considered each other friends. One day after virtual school when the kids were gaming, one of the players began cyberbullying another gamer in the group. The other gamers continued playing and while doing so, they witnessed severe cyberbullying. This included insults and humiliating this one particular gamer. It was clear that in addition to the gamer being cyberbullied, the other gamers were deeply offended by the cyberbullying. Parents of Kidas users were made aware of the cyberbullying in their weekly report and were given support on how to speak to their child about what to do if that situation ever occurred again.
Case 2 – Personal Privacy Violation
As children grow up in this digital world, they are naive to the dangers of the internet. An 11 year old was introduced to another gamer through a friend online. They began playing together frequently although they had never met in person. After a few months of playing and chatting with this gamer online, they had decided to exchange phone numbers. A Kidas member shared his phone number with this other gamer in a public space online without thinking about the repercussions. The child’s parents were alerted. They were provided resources to speak with their child about the dangers of sharing personal information in a public space online, such as blackmail, identity theft, and even sexual assault.
Case 3 – Privacy Violation
To a tween and teenager who games, their gaming assets mean more to them than just about anything else. They spend hours a day building up their gaming assets to play their best game. This is their pride and joy. In a Discord chat online during a gaming session with his peers, two of the gamers logged into another gamers account without permission. In addition to breaking into this gamers account, the hackers went on to share this other players information in the public chat for others to hear. Their plan was to take over all of this players gaming assets. Other people were witness to the theft in the chat where the information was intentionally leaked. This devastated the player and invaded his privacy. Kidas identified this as a privacy violation and alerted all Kidas members who were involved in this violation.
Kidas’ algorithm detect real dangerous cases every single week. From severe cyberbullying to players hacking into another account, Kidas’ algorithm ensures that these violations are detected and reported. All relevant parents were informed.
**Kidas users involved have given their consent to publish these cases without identifiable information**