KHOU – Want to feel old? Try to play a current video game. You’re no longer limited to playing with one other person who is sitting right next to you. “And you probably had to stay in your living room, right? Now, every kid has cellphones and iPads and we give them all this access to the world,” said Houston Police Department Sergeant Luis Menendez-Sierra.

Menendez-Sierra leads the Houston Police Department’s online child sex crimes unit. A lot of the cases are linked to online video games designed for children. “The video games, parents kind of have this false, safe feeling. Oh, well he’s just playing a video game,” said Menendez-Sierra.

“But you don’t even think that some of these safe games that are tailored for children, specifically have dangers, because they have chat options, where they can chat with other people.” And not just text chats, which are offered in games likes Fortnite and Roblox. Video games like Minecraft now offer a voice chat option.  And while popular games offer a “kids only” version, videos posted on YouTube can walk you through ways to “hack” into a kid game server. READ MORE