OK Groomer
A virtual playground to help protect kids from online predators
Client
- Child Focus
Office
- Belgium
Kasper Janssens
Executive Creative Director, VML Belgium
Today, playgrounds don’t only exist physically. Children are playing online virtually as well and adults with bad intentions are finding their way into this world. As a result, these "grooming" rates by adults who approach and manipulate young people online skyrocketed during the lockdowns and reports of grooming have continued to rise at Child Focus, the Belgian Center for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children.
Child Focus decided to tackle the problem head-on where it occurs: in online games and more specifically in the extremely popular Roblox platform, a virtual world in the metaverse where children can play and create games for free.
When groomers found their way onto this platform, we launched 'OK Groomer' to step up the fight against them – an educational Roblox world in which young gamers learn to fight online grooming through a series of mini-games. Groomer tactics pop up into these games and when kids learn to outwit and defeat them, they earn coins they can exchange for groomer repelling skins – the ultimate proof meant to keep the online predators away.
New mini-games are added so that 'OK Groomer' remains a relevant tool in the fight against online groomers.
Besides children, it's also important to educate parents, so a broader 'OK Groomer' campaign rolled out on social media targeted to young parents, giving them information on the problem of online grooming and practical tips to monitor it.
The campaign was covered and discussed in major media across Belgium.