You probably don't think twice when your kid disappears into their room for a few hours on Minecraft or Roblox. That's exactly what makes this conversation worth having, writes Chase Reid, co-founder and CEO of Aslan, an intelligence platform for law enforcement, defense and intelligence professionals.

• Questionable activity goes down on platforms kids use every day. Opening a conversation with them can be intimidating, but it's worth it.

⚡ Threat level: Generative AI, deepfakes and autonomous chatbots are helping bad actors target susceptible kids more easily.

🔍 Reality check: You probably won't find obvious warning signs on your kid's phone.

• What you might notice instead: withdrawal from longtime friends, a fixation on one online community to the exclusion of everything else, new language or memes that feel unusually dark, or sudden secrecy around their devices.

Here's what parents can do:

1. 🧠 Talk about manipulation, not ideology.

• The instinct is to frame this as a political problem: Don't believe extreme ideas. But that's not quite the right conversation.
• Dangerous networks operate more like grooming operations than political movements. They find kids who are lonely, angry or searching for belonging, and they offer community. The ideology comes later.

2. 🤝 Build your kid's sense of connection.

• Teenagers are now the loneliest age group on earth, with 1 in 5 adolescents reporting chronic loneliness, according to a 2025 World Health Organization report.
• The most vulnerable kids are the ones who feel isolated and purposeless. Your job is to make sure that void isn't there — through dinner conversations, car rides and showing up for small moments (that are big to them).

3. 👁️ Know what you can't see.

• Most recruitment happens invisibly by design — closed servers, encrypted messaging apps and coded memes.
• Parents, platforms and law enforcement are often all looking at the same blank wall. Your relationship with your kid is the most important safeguard there is.

The bottom line: One open conversation won't fix everything. But it's the right place to start.

📚 Resources worth bookmarking:

• Common Sense Media: platform-by-platform guides for parents.
• NCMEC: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has a reporting tool for online exploitation.
• FBI Safe Online Surfing: internet safety curriculum for kids and families.

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