Four in Your Corner is looking into the possible dangers of online multi-player games after an Oasis High School student was arrested for making threats toward Oasis Elementary School on an in-game chat session.
The popularity of these games is rising and anyone can play with strangers across the world, often times for free, so parents may not know their kids are using them.
Fortnite, Call of Duty, and PubG are some examples.
"I try to get on at least every day," 22-year-old Chris Frank said when talking about Fortnite.
In that game, players are in a virtual world.
"You have to kill each other and the last one standing is the winner," Frank said. "Either play with friends you know, invite them into your game, or you can play random people."
If you have a microphone, you can talk with other players, and on the computer, you can type in a chat room. Frank said sometimes things get heated.
"People get a little tense sometimes, get mad, say things they wouldn't usually say, but that's just how online gaming works," Frank said. "Because usually you're anonymous. You don't have people knowing who you are."
Anonymity isn't guaranteed. On Monday, a 15-year-old Oasis High School student was arrested in connection with a threat toward Oasis Elementary School on a game like Fortnite. Frank said he sees threatening behavior on the game all the time.
Dr. Lauren Mason is a psychologist, who said threatening behavior can be common with video games.
"Video games anyway, whether they're violent or not, are associated with increased aggression, hostility, lack of attention, lack of focus, distractibility," Dr. Mason said. "And when they're violent, the association is even higher."
With the game being free to download online, your child could download it without parents knowing and play and talk with total strangers.
"Anyone can get online and say whatever they want," Frank said.
"The younger the child is, the more impressionable he or she is," Dr. Mason said.
Frank said there are ways to mute the chatting feature, and recommends keeping kids form having microphones. Dr. Mason recommends keeping kids away from all video games.
