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The story here in the Indy area where a 17 year old ran off with a 39 year old dude she met online in Roblox. They got a "short term rental" at some point, and then she was officially reported missing. Miraculously the dude was able to guide authorities to her remains a few days ago.

Anyway, it's definitely caused a lot of discussion in our friend groups about what they allow their kids to play, and how. We cut Roblox a few months ago because my wife is a Middle School AP, and she sees a lot of kids that get caught up in some really bad stuff through Roblox. I can't tell if it means it's really easy to get around age restrictions or what, but it appears to be a really great breeding ground for creeps.

I built my own Minecraft server that the kids use, and we only admit people we know to the server. I host it here in the house but it's accessible from anywhere. A random user cannot connect (though they try).

Beyond that, I'm totally lost. My boys are on the young side, so most of what we let them do is offline. And they're cool with that. They do like playing with some of their out of town friends in Minecraft.

What have you guys done or allowed? Are the parental controls useless, or are some better than others? Given what we've seen, would that be something that would sway your opinion either way to what your kids can have access to?

Previous Message

The story here in the Indy area where a 17 year old ran off with a 39 year old dude she met online in Roblox. They got a "short term rental" at some point, and then she was officially reported missing. Miraculously the dude was able to guide authorities to her remains a few days ago.

Anyway, it's definitely caused a lot of discussion in our friend groups about what they allow their kids to play, and how. We cut Roblox a few months ago because my wife is a Middle School AP, and she sees a lot of kids that get caught up in some really bad stuff through Roblox. I can't tell if it means it's really easy to get around age restrictions or what, but it appears to be a really great breeding ground for creeps.

I built my own Minecraft server that the kids use, and we only admit people we know to the server. I host it here in the house but it's accessible from anywhere. A random user cannot connect (though they try).

Beyond that, I'm totally lost. My boys are on the young side, so most of what we let them do is offline. And they're cool with that. They do like playing with some of their out of town friends in Minecraft.

What have you guys done or allowed? Are the parental controls useless, or are some better than others? Given what we've seen, would that be something that would sway your opinion either way to what your kids can have access to?

Previous Message

The story here in the Indy area where a 17 year old ran off with a 39 year old dude she met online in Roblox. They got a "short term rental" at some point, and then she was officially reported missing. Miraculously the dude was able to guide authorities to her remains a few days ago.

Anyway, it's definitely caused a lot of discussion in our friend groups about what they allow their kids to play, and how. We cut Roblox a few months ago because my wife is a Middle School AP, and she sees a lot of kids that get caught up in some really bad stuff through Roblox. I can't tell if it means it's really easy to get around age restrictions or what, but it appears to be a really great breeding ground for creeps.

I built my own Minecraft server that the kids use, and we only admit people we know to the server. I host it here in the house but it's accessible from anywhere. A random user cannot connect (though they try).

Beyond that, I'm totally lost. My boys are on the young side, so most of what we let them do is offline. And they're cool with that. They do like playing with some of their out of town friends in Minecraft.

What have you guys done or allowed? Are the parental controls useless, or are some better than others? Given what we've seen, would that be something that would sway your opinion either way to what your kids can have access to?

Previous Message

The story here in the Indy area where a 17 year old ran off with a 39 year old dude she met online in Roblox. They got a "short term rental" at some point, and then she was officially reported missing. Miraculously the dude was able to guide authorities to her remains a few days ago.

Anyway, it's definitely caused a lot of discussion in our friend groups about what they allow their kids to play, and how. We cut Roblox a few months ago because my wife is a Middle School AP, and she sees a lot of kids that get caught up in some really bad stuff through Roblox. I can't tell if it means it's really easy to get around age restrictions or what, but it appears to be a really great breeding ground for creeps.

I built my own Minecraft server that the kids use, and we only admit people we know to the server. I host it here in the house but it's accessible from anywhere. A random user cannot connect (though they try).

Beyond that, I'm totally lost. My boys are on the young side, so most of what we let them do is offline. And they're cool with that. They do like playing with some of their out of town friends in Minecraft.

What have you guys done or allowed? Are the parental controls useless, or are some better than others? Given what we've seen, would that be something that would sway your opinion either way to what your kids can have access to?

Previous Message

The story here in the Indy area where a 17 year old ran off with a 39 year old dude she met online in Roblox. They got a "short term rental" at some point, and then she was officially reported missing. Miraculously the dude was able to guide authorities to her remains a few days ago.

Anyway, it's definitely caused a lot of discussion in our friend groups about what they allow their kids to play, and how. We cut Roblox a few months ago because my wife is a Middle School AP, and she sees a lot of kids that get caught up in some really bad stuff through Roblox. I can't tell if it means it's really easy to get around age restrictions or what, but it appears to be a really great breeding ground for creeps.

I built my own Minecraft server that the kids use, and we only admit people we know to the server. I host it here in the house but it's accessible from anywhere. A random user cannot connect (though they try).

Beyond that, I'm totally lost. My boys are on the young side, so most of what we let them do is offline. And they're cool with that. They do like playing with some of their out of town friends in Minecraft.

What have you guys done or allowed? Are the parental controls useless, or are some better than others? Given what we've seen, would that be something that would sway your opinion either way to what your kids can have access to?