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> In tweets reviewed by NBC News, the accused adult identified as a “map” — a common online abbreviation for “minor-attracted person.” I'm both amused and horr

> In tweets reviewed by NBC News, the accused adult identified as a “map” — a common online abbreviation for “minor-attracted person.” I'm both amused and horrified at how open people are about this stuff. No longer do we have to divine intent from lists of ambiguous red flags, they'll just outright broadcast their proclivities without fear of consequence. I also love the "I'm mentally 13" nonsense from people old enough to know better. There was a bone-chilling moment when my (very young) kids were playing with toys together and when asked what they were doing, they responded with "role-playing." I keep seeing reports that online enticement cases sharply increased thanks to COVID. Can't say I'm surprised. Somewhere along the way, [something] got kids to normalize the very verbiage the groomers use to steer online conversations in sexual directions. They can't see it coming. I don't even try to teach mine to look for warning signs anymore and just tell them to assume everyone on the internet is Philip Garrido escaped from prison.

tortasaur 4y ago
> There was a bone-chilling moment when my (very young) kids were playing with toys together and when asked what they were doing, they responded with "role-playing." If this was bone-chilling, I have some bad news: there's a whole genre of "role-playing games" that have been around for decades.
- jstarfish 4y ago
  Come on, I know what RPGs are. This isn't about role-playing games, it's about the specific term and act of role-playing-- and kids barely out of diapers describing it as such. It used to be the domain of therapists, then pedophiles. My point was that they were way too young to know what D&D even was, and is a product marketed to boys (up until 5E anyway). Mine were still playing with dolls at the time.
  - add-sub-mul-div 4y ago
    I've never heard of "role playing" having this sort of connotation you're jumping to that would be troubling to see from children.
  - dragonwriter 4y ago
    > My point was that they were way too young to know what D&D even was, and is a product marketed to boys (up until 5E anyway). D&D started marketing to women and girls before AD&D/1e, actually, but more to the point, “role-playing” as a term for make-believe play in which one assumes fictional/alternative roles, a usage radiating out to general use fairly directly from both entertainment (CRPG/TTRPG) and therapeutic and educational use of the term. The idea that “pedophiles” are involved i is such a bizarre (but totally 2020’s, where “pedophiles are the explanation for everything unfamiliar or different from my childhood” seems to be a common and actively propagandized belief) take.
    - jstarfish 4y ago
      > D&D started marketing to women and girls before AD&D/1e, actually They didn't do a good job of it; modern feminism has a lot to say about the misogyny of the entire franchise. But that's not my fight. I'm assuming you're defensive as a fan of the genre. I'm coming at this from the investigative/law enforcement side. You don't have to dig very far in any online enticement/runaway case before you discover something like: > Both the teen and the Hunter Fox account made frequent references to the online furry community — a group of people who roleplay as anthropomorphized animal characters. "Role playing" is a common denominator in these cases so frequently it's on most lists of grooming red flags published by every credible international child safety organization, and for good reason. Of all the setups they could use, of all the euphemisms they could use, predators opt to use verbiage this specific like they're all following the same script. You may not want to discuss the idea of having sex with me (or have any sort of sexual discussion), but if we frame the conversation as roleplay, we can still explore sexual topics-- because it's not actually you and me talking, right? It's just our characters. It's ChatGPT jailbreaking, done to humans. The disassociation lowers your guard and facilitates activities that you otherwise would not have allowed. Get kids to agree to roleplay, get them to normalize saying and doing shit they're uncomfortable with, and you can gradually push the boundaries to get them to do more things they're not comfortable with. The process is laughably identical. I like RPGs myself, so I'm not panning them or trying to imply all role-players are pedophiles or trying to instigate the next Satanic Panic, only making the argument that role-playing is frequently abused as a social engineering technique against children (who are generally receptive to "games"). I don't like it any more than you do, but it is what it is.
- BulgarianIdiot 4y ago
  Bone chilling.

tortasaur 4y ago

> There was a bone-chilling moment when my (very young) kids were playing with toys together and when asked what they were doing, they responded with "role-playing." If this was bone-chilling, I have some bad news: there's a whole genre of "role-playing games" that have been around for decades.

jstarfish 4y ago
Come on, I know what RPGs are. This isn't about role-playing games, it's about the specific term and act of role-playing-- and kids barely out of diapers describing it as such. It used to be the domain of therapists, then pedophiles. My point was that they were way too young to know what D&D even was, and is a product marketed to boys (up until 5E anyway). Mine were still playing with dolls at the time.
- add-sub-mul-div 4y ago
  I've never heard of "role playing" having this sort of connotation you're jumping to that would be troubling to see from children.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > My point was that they were way too young to know what D&D even was, and is a product marketed to boys (up until 5E anyway). D&D started marketing to women and girls before AD&D/1e, actually, but more to the point, “role-playing” as a term for make-believe play in which one assumes fictional/alternative roles, a usage radiating out to general use fairly directly from both entertainment (CRPG/TTRPG) and therapeutic and educational use of the term. The idea that “pedophiles” are involved i is such a bizarre (but totally 2020’s, where “pedophiles are the explanation for everything unfamiliar or different from my childhood” seems to be a common and actively propagandized belief) take.
  - jstarfish 4y ago
    > D&D started marketing to women and girls before AD&D/1e, actually They didn't do a good job of it; modern feminism has a lot to say about the misogyny of the entire franchise. But that's not my fight. I'm assuming you're defensive as a fan of the genre. I'm coming at this from the investigative/law enforcement side. You don't have to dig very far in any online enticement/runaway case before you discover something like: > Both the teen and the Hunter Fox account made frequent references to the online furry community — a group of people who roleplay as anthropomorphized animal characters. "Role playing" is a common denominator in these cases so frequently it's on most lists of grooming red flags published by every credible international child safety organization, and for good reason. Of all the setups they could use, of all the euphemisms they could use, predators opt to use verbiage this specific like they're all following the same script. You may not want to discuss the idea of having sex with me (or have any sort of sexual discussion), but if we frame the conversation as roleplay, we can still explore sexual topics-- because it's not actually you and me talking, right? It's just our characters. It's ChatGPT jailbreaking, done to humans. The disassociation lowers your guard and facilitates activities that you otherwise would not have allowed. Get kids to agree to roleplay, get them to normalize saying and doing shit they're uncomfortable with, and you can gradually push the boundaries to get them to do more things they're not comfortable with. The process is laughably identical. I like RPGs myself, so I'm not panning them or trying to imply all role-players are pedophiles or trying to instigate the next Satanic Panic, only making the argument that role-playing is frequently abused as a social engineering technique against children (who are generally receptive to "games"). I don't like it any more than you do, but it is what it is.
BulgarianIdiot 4y ago
Bone chilling.