CW: mentions of child pornography and exploitation

The wonders of cybertechnology might have revolutionized the world for the better, but it also created niches for…certain types of criminals. The kinds of people you never want to meet in real life. It’s a harsh reality of working in these types of cybersecurity fields, because sexual exploitation of children and human trafficking is sadly a large part of cybercrimes committed.  

Chatrooms, social media pages, and forums are also used to groom young people. There are many infamous YouTube personalities who have been caught having inappropriate contact with minors. And who can forget the absolute abhorrence that was the Josh Duggar escapade, in which a prosecutor claimed that the images and videos he possessed were some of the worst he’d ever seen.

However, that isn’t the extent of online offenders. If you have kids that play video games, beware of things called loot boxes. They are basically legalized gambling. You can pay for fake stuff with real money to get a loot box which gives you a random bit of in-game items or currency. I find microtransactions in video games deplorable in general. Online multi-player games are also mediums in which prospective pedophiles groom young children and teenagers, especially popular games like Minecraft and Fortnite. I strongly believe that there needs to be more protections concerning children being online, and not just a bunch of reactionary virtue-signaling from parents and politicians who blame video games for real-life violence.

Sorry, I kind of climbed on a soapbox there. Though I think developing cyber-policies regarding minors and online video games is essential to stop this awful child-gambling culture and prevent child exploitation. Games should be fun, not money-farming casinos. Of course, we can never predict what’s going to happen in the future in terms of cyber-techology. Unchecked capitalism isn’t going to fade away in an instant and we have to adapt to avoid the fallout.