"Who is this BFF?" Ryan's* 12-year-old son played Fortnite every day. He was being groomed.

Channel 10’s Mirror Mirror has brought numerous revelations to the forefront, mostly regarding the dangers of the internet for children and teens.

While audiences were shocked by host and journalist Todd Sampson’s exploration of Omegle in the most-recent episode, he also delved into the world of online game Fortnite, and how anonymous online communication has led to the exploitation of children.

Ryan*, the father of a 12-year-old boy appeared on the show to tell his story, sharing how his son was the victim of online abuse.

The young boy, who said he often spent 10-15 hours a day playing Fortnite, was exposed to a predator via the chat function in the game, who went on to solicit pictures from him.

“At some point, it migrated from talking on Fortnite to being told to download Whatsapp on his phone,” Ryan explained to Sampson. 

“So he downloaded WhatsApp and then saved his person's number as BFF, which is ‘best friend forever,” he continued.

“And this person would text and text and call. I was like, "Who is this BFF? Oh, just a friend from school". I asked what's the name and he couldn't tell me.

“I grabbed the phone and went into his messages and I was mortified at what I found. They asked for pictures in return for $300 worth of Xbox vouchers, which he didn't even think twice. He just provided it to them.”

Ryan* shares his story with Todd Sampson on Mirror Mirror. Image: Network 10. 

Chat functions have been used by gaming companies to drive young people to their platforms, combining social media functions alongside the gameplay.

“Fundamentally, the reason gaming companies want us to be more social in chat is because there is specific research that when you make games more social, that does actually deliver a bigger dopamine hit to the brain, and therefore has kids and teenagers coming back more often,” Brad Marshall, a psychologist who specialises in internet addiction, said on the show.

The discovery was deeply distressing for Ryan.

“The guilt is what hurts the most. He was targeted because I didn't provide that support that I should have. It was like a bomb went off in my world,” Ryan* shared.

“January or February is when I found out that it happened. And then on May 11, I had a suicide attempt from that.

“I realised that the way that I need to heal through this is to help other people to educate children and parents. It's one thing waiting till it happens and then [educating] the child. But if you can educate a child before it happens, then you stop it,” he continued.

“These games are designed to just pull in money and they're not interested in protecting children. They've made it so much easier for children to be targeted.”

"These games are designed to just pull in money and they're not interested in protecting children. They've made it so much easier for children to be targeted." 

The incident is far from isolated.

“I think one of the most devastating things that our investigators have seen for the past five years is what we call coerced self-produced child sexual abuse imagery,” Julie Inman Grant, Australia's eSafety Commissioner, said.

“And it's literally young people, sometimes as young as six, but more often in the tween area is when they're being coerced to perform sexual acts. 

“The vast majority of these are filmed in the bedrooms and the bathrooms of the family home. In some of the videos, we can even hear the parents in the background calling for dinner. So this can literally happen right under our noses,” she shared.

Listen to Mamamia's parenting podcast, Help! I Have a Teenager. Post continues below.

While the Mirror Mirror program has been helpfully exposing the dangers of the online world for parents, it also features experts who have given their best advice for parents managing internet usage in the home.

“What I tell parents to do is manage the WiFi,” Marshall explained to the camera.

“If you cut off the WiFi essentially you cut off the dopamine to these devices, and they’re pretty useless,” he shared.

Grant also suggested having your children use their devices more openly.

“Have your kids use technology in open areas of the home. Nothing good happens with a digital device behind the closed door of a bedroom or a bathroom,”she suggested.

You can watch Mirror, Mirror on TenPlay now. 

*Names have been changed.

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