THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 75 AUGUST 14, 2019
With 28 percent of all U.S. gamers under the age of 18, platforms like Roblox and Minecraft
have become hunting grounds for predators as online offenders ‘go where the kids are’
By Patrick Shanleyver the past decade and a half, online
predators have shifted their sights
numerous times — from message
boards to Facebook to Snapchat — as
young users hop from one trending
social network to another. Now, their focus has landed
on the latest hunting ground: online video games. As
tech companies battle to keep up with ever-shifting
regulations, such as YouTube’s recent policy changes
in response to worries over child exploitation or the
removal of 8chan content from Google after links
between the forum and the El Paso shooter were dis-
covered, game studios are also feeling the pressure to
keep young players safe.
In response, online game
companies are beefing up security
efforts. “I am seeing an increase
in sextortion through online
games,” says Shannon Martucci,
a child and adolescent forensic
interviewer who works closely
with FBI agents to combat online
predators. “The way you have to
look at it is, an offender who wants
to perpetrate on children is going
to go where the kids are.”
Sextortion — a term the FBI
and others use for coercing an
unwilling partner into sexual
acts, especially online — can take
many forms, but one common
maneuver is for a predator to offer
to pay for desirable character
costumes or add-ons, known as skins. To prevent such
encounters, one popular game, Roblox, monitors the
platform for players who want to take interactions
off-platform or onto third-party apps where there may
be little moderation. Chat features on Roblox — which
reported a 40 percent growth in revenue year-over-
year ($76.6 million) in its first quarter this year
— don’t allow users to share personal information
like phone numbers or addresses. “We have a team of
more than 800 human moderators globally along with
AI and machine learning to address concerns around
the clock,” says Tami Bhaumik, the company’s vp of
digital civility.
Roughly 211 million Americans play video games,
according to a 2018 NPD report. Of that group, 28 per-
cent are under 18. “We [used to see] sextortion cases
on Facebook because that was the medium children
were using,” says Greenburg Glusker partner Priya
Sopori, who previously worked at the Department
of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative, which
combats technology-enabled crimes against children.
“What we see now is a shift
more to video games as the
behavioral model changes
for children.”
In September, in one
of the largest stings ever
related to online gaming
predation, a multi-agencyset for the Misery-themed
second season of J.J.
Abrams’ Hulu series Castle
Rock, with Tim Robbins, and
will lead a musical biopic
about ’60s cult rock band
The Shaggs.
My advice for adults
“Stop being scared of
teens! Or judging us! While
some of us are a little more
... rebellious, just cut us a
little slack.”
ABBY
RYDER FORTSON 11
Known for
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Growing up with actor
parents, Fortson booked her
first commercial the day
she turned 4. “We cel-
ebrated my birthday on
the back of the car we
shot the commercial in,”
she says. Since then, she’s
starred as Paul Rudd’s
daughter in Ant-Man and its
sequel, and also appeared
in Transparent, A Dog’s
Journey and Room 104.
Up next, she will recur in
Amazon crime series Ta l e s
From the Loop.
The movie I’d love to star
in “A remake of Harry Potter.
All of the books, I’ve read
them over 100 times.”
MCKENNA GRACE 13
Known for
Captain Marvel
Extensive film and TV work,
including a breakout role
opposite Chris Evans in
2017 drama Gifted, have
culminated in a zenith year
for Grace — who played
a young Carol Danvers in
Disney’s Captain Marvel
and starred in the James
Wan-produced horror hit
Annabelle Comes Home.
Now she’s filming Jason
Reitman’s Ghostbusters
2020 and producing a pas-
sion project (see page 76).
How I spent my first
acting paycheck “It was
a long time ago so I can’t
really remember, but I can
say with full confidence it
was on a stuffed animal.”
ANALYSISundercover investigation dubbed “Operation Open
House” led to the arrest of 24 people in New Jersey
for allegedly using Fortnite and Minecraft to lure
and groom minors for sex. Platforms like these have
“made it much, much easier for predators to go online
and target our kids," explains FBI special agent Kevin
Kaufman, who is assigned to the bureau’s Violent
Crimes Against Children task force.
Sextortion cases can carry a jail sentence of up to 30
years; while the average age of victims is 14, according
to the FBI, Martucci has interviewed some as young
as 8. The issue for officials trying to protect minors
is that it can be hard to prevent young children from
playing these online games. The
Entertainment Software Rating
Board rates Fortnite as T for teen,
meaning its content is suitable
for players age 13 and up, but the
game does not restrict younger
players from opening accounts. A
class action suit was filed Aug. 8
in the U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of North Carolina
(where developer Epic Games
is headquartered) asking for
$100 million in response to a data
breach leaking personal informa-
tion due to a “flaw in Fortnite’s
code.” Epic did not respond to
multiple requests for comment,
but the game’s code of conduct
tells players to “keep account
information safe and private” and
states that the company investigates all feedback and
takes action “when necessary.”
Both Xbox and PlayStation, meanwhile, require
that online accounts for players under 18 in the U.S.
be linked to and controlled by an adult’s account,
which can set restrictions on what kids can do and say
online. But it’s at the discretion of the parent to set
such limitations, and once online, players can interact
with all other age groups. “We have a dedicated safety
team that works across Xbox Live 24 hours a day, seven
days a week to review flagged content as quickly as
possible and coordinate with law enforcement in those
rare instances where it is necessary,” a Microsoft
representative tells THR.
It’s not falling only on game developers to keep
young players safe. In 2017, to combat growing
concerns of online predation, the Senate passed the
Protect Our Children Act — reauthorizing a nation-
wide network of 61 coordinated task forces made up of
some 3,500 federal, state and local law enforcement
and prosecutorial agencies working to combat child
exploitation. “Predators will exploit any means they
can to access minors,” said Sen. Amy K lobuchar, the
Democratic presidential candidate who was among
the bipartisan backers of the legislation, in an email to
THR. “As predators have become increasingly sophis-
ticated in their efforts to victimize children using
technology, we need to ensure that our law enforce-
ment officials have the resources that they need.”59M
Gamers
in the U.S.
under the
age of 18