Let’s be honest, spending actual money, dollar bills, to build something on a video game was not on my “things I would do as a parent” bingo card. If you are like me, it is hard to keep up with the amount of games, apps, and videos the ever shrinking attention span my 9-year-old cycles through daily. What I mean is, I have parental controls to where he has to request to download and or delete anything on his devices. Most of the little games he downloads he may play for one day and then he is done. Which is more evidence of the effect of short form content…and that is another article.
The point here is that it is difficult to keep up with the ever-changing technology, abilities, and content embedded within these games and apps. However; when one such game has become very popular for children, so popular in fact that toys in Walmart’s aisles are covered in the logo, actual money can be paid to do stuff in the game, the currency has a name “Robux” and sneaks up on Grandma’s credit card bill. You hear the name in your household chanted by the little people that have taken over the living room, on those little YouTube shorts or Tik Toks in the background of daily life, that game deserves, nay, maybe requires a little more research.
I began my Roblox rants a little over a year ago when I stumbled across a Youtube/podcaster named Schelp.
Schelp is a young Youtube/Podcaster who experienced grooming and abuse from a predator who used Roblox as a platform to target him at 12 years old, right from worn cushion of his predator couch! After years of abuse, Schelp finally realized what was happening and turned his pain into something productive.
He used his skill with computers along with local law enforcement to catch these predators. He gathered electronic data to the extent that it was able to effectively indict those actively seeking their prey on the game. By the end of 2025 Roblox served Schelp a cease and desist letter and banned all of his accounts. The money the company was losing was more important than keeping predators away from children, in my opinion. Schelp has told his story on the popular Shawn Ryan show in an effort to spread awareness of just what could happen and what the actual priority CEO’s of a gaming or social media powerhouse, is, or has always been…also, still just my opinion.
What does this have to do with us? I mean, just turn the chat off right? My kids wouldn’t tell anyone my address! Does not matter. These highly skilled adults and teenagers on the other end of the keyboard know how to circumvent the controls, chat anyway, and the fact your child is online already gives what most of us would call “hackers” a fingerprint to everything about you: your IP address.
Remember that time I was talking about your information sold to the highest bidder? Yes, these platforms gather data on you, too. Why do you think you have to have your email address to log in? How many places ask you nowadays for an email address when you try to purchase something in-store? Like lady, I just want to buy these socks in peace!
A lady I know who lives in Loris, S.C. had an incident happen last year, I would have never believed if a stranger told me. Long story short, her son angered someone on a popular game and before they knew it, that person had hacked into their IP address and Ring doorbell cameras. Called the police and told them that the mom, my friend, had unalived her husband and put him in the closet. Her husband was out of town working and that did not go well when a swarm of cops pounded on the front door. It is comical now, however; I am sure it was not funny then.
Think of the amount of information gathered from someone all the way across the U.S. Their address, layout of the home, what they look like, the name of the mother, father and son. They knew the husband was out of town! Now, do you think toggling the “chat off” button is going to stop these people, the same kind of people who targeted Schelp?
Back to the circle I am trying to draw. Now Schelp was targeted by what is now considered a Death Cult extremist group called 764. “764” is the three-digit area code of the young boy who started it, a boy named Bradley Chance Cadenhead from Stephenville, Texas. His lack of creativity is astounding. I digress…
He started it online in 2020 and it has now garnered the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation nationwide due to the amount of children that have been targeted. The FBI have sounded the alarm nationwide with approximately 250 open cases.
According to the FBI, gaming and social media platforms (the ones mentioned are Roblox and Snapchat) are the main avenues that these extremist groups are using. In 2025 and currently 2026 this group has trickled its poison in our neck of the woods. Yes, cases are in North Carolina and continue to rise.
What can we do? What is the answer? That is up to you. I choose to educate myself, pay attention, and never fall under the self-soothing mindset of “it’ll never be me”.
I understand these topics are heavy and make us all just want to live in the wilderness and put all the children in a protective bubble. On a soul-deep level, I get it. On the other hand, reality paints quite a different picture. Information is power. Information can protect, destroy, prepare, assure, and unite.
If you made it this far, bless you and if you choose to look into all of this further, Godspeed!
Yours Truly,
Just a Curious Crow
Shawn Ryan, “Schlep-Every Parent Needs to Watch This SRS #284” podcast/video YouTube @shawnryanshow, March 2, 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4d4Ycaznao
Federal Bureau of Investigation. “Violent Online Networks.” Inside the FBI, 12 Dec. 2025, https://www.fbi.gov/video-repository/inside-the-fbi-podcast-violent-online-networks-121225.mp4/view. Podcast.
Levine, Mike, Pierre Thomas, and Lucien Bruggeman. “FBI Has Opened 250 Investigations Tied to Violent Online Network ‘764’ That Preys on Teens, Top Official Says.” ABC News, 6 May 2025, https://abcnews.com/US/fbi-opened-250-investigations-tied-violent-online-network/story?id=121480884
