Parents urged to monitor children’s online use

Parents are being warned to take responsibility for what their children are exposed to online, as concerns mount globally about the popular gaming platform Roblox.

Launched in 2006, Roblox is an online platform where users, many of them children, create and play games, interact with others, and build virtual worlds. However, recent scrutiny in countries such as the Philippines and Australia has raised alarm, with authorities flagging concerns that predators may be targeting minors through the platform.

President of the National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica (NPTAJ), Stewart Jacobs, said Jamaican parents cannot afford to be passive.

"We must be guarded each time when our children go on any social media, [or] any form of content creation by apps because many of these content creators or designers of these programmes have ulterior motives," he said. He warned that children are particularly vulnerable to manipulation.

"Imagine, they can work on the subliminal mind of adults, how much easier it is for them to work on children because of the vulnerable and impressionable state of children, and therefore, it is incumbent on parents to check on these games that your children are playing."

Jacobs was adamant that adults have a responsibility for their children to ensure that they are not exposed to certain content.

"If it doesn't happen, then you are at fault as a parent. Do not blame the child. Do not blame the content creators or the platform creators." He criticised parents who give their children the money to purchase online gaming but then do not oversee them.

"[They are] guilty as ever and should be placed in the front of the law, because they are irresponsible," he said.

"What these parents of today are doing, they're not pawning off their children to the neighbour... they're pawning off their children to the devices. The child grows up being taught and socialised by these games unfortunately."

Jacobs opined that parents are underestimating the risks their children face in these virtual playgrounds because of lack of knowledge.

"As far as they are concerned, the phone is calling, gossiping and for entertainment," he said. Jacobs is now calling for both parental action and government intervention. He urged parents to begin taking back their children, and doing "the basics", for example: spending quality time with them. On the policy side, he opined that stronger measures may be necessary.

"The Government has the responsibility to look at some of these games and use the legislation to block them from the country," he said.

Jacobs added that the NPTAJ is prepared to act if needed, possibly sitting with the government officials to formulate strategies.

Some parents, however, remain conflicted balancing benefits with fears.

Thirty-six-year-old Andrea Hanson, a mother of two, said her 14-year-old son spends hours on Roblox daily.

"Him live pon Roblox. It mek him talk to people and when mi hear him a talk standard English, mi glad, mi think it help him fi speak better. But fi hear seh it might have predators is very frightening."

Hanson also has a five-year-old who uses the platform, highlighting just how early children are being introduced to online gaming.

"Sometimes a pure mouse with the two a dem with it in the house but a something them do together," she said.

Another mother, who is a Kingston-based high school teacher, said that her 16-year-old daughter has been playing the game since junior school.

"I use it as a reward system. If she does well, that is normally her only request she makes. So I make the purchase for her. I don't know what is in the game, she just tells me the amount of coins and I purchase them to her account," she laughed.