The Hidden Threat: How Online Predators Use Games to Groom Vulnerable Children

Today, I sat in the Magistrates’ Court, there to support my eldest son. For two and a half years, he has carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. And for two and a half years, our family has watched him suffer under that burden, powerless to lift it.

He was just sixteen when it all began. A child; impressionable, vulnerable, and already deeply scarred. He had entered the care system after enduring physical and emotional abuse, carrying trauma no child should bear. And like many young people desperately seeking a place to belong, he turned to the online world.

Since COVID-19, even adults have increasingly used social media to meet our emotional needs. Our children see us doing this, and they follow. But behind the screens and usernames lies a far darker world. The dark web lures in vulnerable kids like a predator with sweets. Online gangs operate in similar ways: they offer promises of Bitcoin, cash, or in-game currency. And children, especially those from less privileged backgrounds, become easy targets.

My son was one of them.

Yes, he was asked what sites he was using. But everything was hidden behind popular games; Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite. It all looked safe. But behind the cheerful graphics and avatars, he was being drawn into something sinister.

Using platforms like Telegram, X, and Discord, adults manipulated him, and others, to take part in coordinated “swatting” attacks on social media influencers. It was all presented as fun. A joke. Just a phone call. But those calls led to fully armed FBI and RCMP teams storming people’s homes. Real people, whose lives were put in serious danger. It could have ended in death. It almost did.

The masterminds of these operations never touch a phone. They never take a risk. They stay hidden. But the children they manipulate? They’re the ones who get caught.

The police trace IP addresses. They follow the digital trail. And it always ends with a teenager in trouble. The ones behind it win both ways: they get the thrill of watching chaos unfold online, and they get the satisfaction of seeing a scared, confused child take the fall.

All because a minor was promised a few virtual coins. “It’s only a phone call.” “Think of the Robux and skins you can buy.” To a child, that can sound like a deal worth making.

At sixteen, you’re not thinking about criminal charges. You’re thinking about the next add-on for your game. You don’t see a courtroom in your future. But that’s exactly where it leads.

The promises never came through. There was no money, no reward, just police raiding the house and arresting a child who now fears for his future.

He acted as a child. But now, two and a half years later, the Crown Prosecution Service has decided he must be tried as an adult. He’s eighteen now. The law doesn’t care what he was then.

And it doesn’t stop there. The American justice system wants him. The Canadian justice system wants him. And the press? They’ve published his name, his age, his address, for all to see. Because he’s an adult now. That’s all they care about. Not who he was. Not what he’s been through. Not the trauma, the coercion, or the system that failed to protect him. Just the headline. Just the clicks.

I went into that courtroom today hoping to feel justice in the air. But the lobby was empty. Soulless. Cold. The barrister arrived late, looking exhausted, like he’d already been broken by another case before ours had even begun. When asked if he could raise objections, he simply replied, “It’s like that, and that’s the way it is.”

Justice didn’t live there. It felt like stepping into a shop where all the shelves were bare. No compassion. No curiosity. Just old rules gathering dust. A system not built for the digital age, not built for nuance. Just black-and-white justice, take it or leave it.

There was no time for context. No appetite for understanding. No challenge to the outdated laws. Just a list of options presented to my son, and a weary instruction to choose one. Is that really justice?

Meanwhile, those who groomed and exploited these children, where were they? Not in the dock. Not in the headlines. Their parents weren’t sitting in the public gallery, praying. It was just us. Alone. Watching our child be processed, not protected.

All this for what? A laugh? A thrill? A trending clip?

The system, as it stands, enables predators and punishes the children they manipulate. And as parents, all we can do is weep and pray, watching our children be dragged through a process that was never built to understand the world they live in.

Today, I sat in a place where justice once lived. But there was no life there. No warmth. Just cold procedure, outdated laws, and empty seats.

And that is what breaks me the most. 

I’m sharing this to raise awareness. Please, check your children’s devices. Talk to them. Protect them. We all think it could never happen to us, but it can, and it does. Don’t wait until it’s too late.