Sibling and friend game time key to keeping children safe in online video games, say researchers

Older siblings and friends may play important, and sometimes overlooked, roles in helping parents keep their children safe on online gaming platforms like Roblox and Minecraft, according to new research led by Penn State.

Online gaming platforms like Roblox and Minecraft—with their 100 million and 25 million daily active users, respectively—allow and encourage players to develop and publish their own games on the systems. For example, within Roblox, even beginners can use Roblox Studio and the templates it offers to create, test and publish various types of games, like puzzles, roleplay games and simulations.

But these user-generated games (UGGs) may pose safety risks, including monetary scams and inappropriate roleplay, to the millions of children who play daily. Parental control is often seen as the primary means for keeping child gamers safe, but children may hesitate to tell their parents everything about their online experiences.

Siblings, extended family and friends can help fill that gap, according to the researchers, who presented their work at the Interaction Design and Children Conference 2025 at Reykjavik University, Iceland.

“Although children may not share risky online encounters with their parents, they tend to share them with siblings, peers or extended family members like their aunts and uncles, who may be closer in age and have some knowledge of or even play games like Roblox,” said Zinan Zhang, first author of the study and a doctoral candidate in Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST). “These individuals can help children build knowledge of and avoid scams and other risky situations in online video games.”

The researchers conducted online video interviews with 26 child players ranging in age from 7 to 15, with a parent or guardian present, to identify the risky situations they encounter most often in online gaming platforms such as Roblox and the safety practices they employ to mitigate those risks. They then reviewed the interview transcripts for quotes related to child safety and identified more than 500 initial data points. They further analyzed those data points and identified three overarching themes regarding safety risks that child gamers encounter, and three themes regarding the safety practices they employ.

The team found that online safety risks fell into three main categories: varied scams, including scams between players and scam games designed to steal in-game currency, which is often bought using a parent’s credit card or a store-bought gift card; the normalization of anti-social behavior like terrorism and violence; and adult roleplays such as sexually explicit roleplaying.

“It’s particularly important to recognize the possible risks and harms in UGGs,” said Xinning Gui, study co-author and assistant professor of information sciences and technology at Penn State. “UGGs are different than games like World of Warcraft, League of Legends and other games developed by big companies. Companies that develop games have some responsibility to moderate those games as well as legal liabilities. But for UGGs, anyone can make and publish a game, which makes moderation especially challenging.”

Zhang likened the challenges of moderating UGGs on online gaming platforms to those faced by social media companies attempting to moderate user content. The content is plentiful, user-driven and depends on other players interacting with, and sometimes reporting, it.

The safety measures identified by the researchers include adaptive practices across social relationships, such as discussing issues with siblings and friends who play the same games to help identify and manage scams; heuristics—or mental shortcuts—like building trust through longer-term interactions with other players before accepting friend requests or only trusting real-life friends and siblings on the platforms; and tinkering with platforms’ safety features, such as chat filters and age restrictions.

Interactions with siblings and peers emerged as a significant safety practice that could complement parental mediation, in part because the children tended to avoid telling their parents about every risky experience they encountered online, according to the researchers.

“One child talked about playing a ‘murderer and sheriff’ game, where players can choose to be a murderer, innocent people or a sheriff,” Zhang said. “The murderer tries to kill innocent people and avoid being caught by the sheriff, and the sheriff tries to catch the murderer and protect the innocent people. When I tried to dig down further, the child hastened to say she doesn’t want her mom to know about the game.”

The researchers suggested that co-play, or parents playing video games alongside their children, can also help parents better understand the potential risks and harms that their children encounter online. Then they can co-navigate the challenges together.

“Co-play may be super helpful to parents and a way for them to attain more knowledge about what a specific game is and the potential risks involved,” said Yubo Kou, study co-author and the Haile Family Early Career Professor in IST at Penn State.

“Video games also provide an opportunity for us to think about the larger family environment and about whether there is enough space for parents and children to talk about all sorts of issues. They provide a common ground for parents and children to explore together.”

Junnan Yu, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Sunhye Bai, University of Oregon, also contributed to the research.