Grooming, or am I being too Daily Mail?

I was playing online on Forza today and as is normal, there were a selection of more mature keen racers who would do well (ahem), and a selection of young children. The kids generally chatter away on their microphones, scream at each other and say rude words. All normal. When the racing starts typically the keen guys would race round quickly while the kids do donuts and try and make them crash.

Now today there was this obvious older bloke talking to them. He started off talking to them about their cars and how well they’d tuned their cars up, aligned himself with them by telling them how he struggled with getting his car set up right and I noted that he didn;t race, he did the same things they did and deliberately drove round at the same speed as them. I could hear them talking as they passed each other.

As we moved to each race he became more and more familiar with them, passed on his meatspace nickname ‘geezer’ and asked one of the lads what his real nickname was. Eventually one of the kids friended him at which point he seemed to lose interest, said, and I kid you not, ‘my puppy wants to play with his ball’ and left.

Lonely bloke playing online by himself, (ahem) or paedo warming a kid up? Now he’s friended him he can come back to that lad any time.

Report him? I have his online name.

Edit: I’ll add that I asked my son and his friends (they’re all between 16 and 18) what they thought of this and they said it was normal behaviour. Everyone is a kid on xbox live was what one of them said.

hell yeah

It’s an escape into childhood/infantilism for some folks I reckon, and very innocent (in all senses of the word), agree it could be suss but equally, it might not.

So difficult to know. Probably nothing but then the Daily Hate et al has us all so paranoid.

If you don’t report and something happens, if you do report and some poor innocent bloke gets branded a kiddy fiddler…

You have his username so perhaps monitor a bit more and see if anything more suspicious comes up?

Cheers

Danny B

Shouldn’t worry, I innocent or otherwise GCHQ will now be all over it…

Maybe I should friend him to find out more?

What could possibly go wrong with that?

I think that gaming is for kids anyway .I find it odd that grown men want to play with kids toys

In this case it seems like it’s kids playing with grownups toys. Meanwhile, loads of people don’t understand why adults ride bicycles.

It`s an age thing being in my late 40s ive never done gaming !

Kids toys? Like bikes or footballs?

Kids toys? Like trolls?

No as in computer games that kids like my 13 year old play

Samurai – http://ceop.police.uk/%5B/url%5D

I’d give them a bell and talk it over, I would hope they’d be very interested.

and bikes that your 13 year old likes to ride and footballs that your 13 year old likes to kick about? WHat’s the difference, they’re all childrens pastimes.

Just because you don’t like doing something doesn’t make it wrong or odd but you repeatedly pop up on any thread relating to computer games to point out how you don’t like computer games and think they’re for children. There’s plenty of adults who do like computer gaming including ones in their late forties like me.

Fine, go and ride your bike or something.

Thanks Chakaping, I’ll do that.

Think ive mentioned it once or twice that is all ! I have a son who has been obsessed with gaming since very young (thanks to his mother )to the detriment of anything else .I just think its the sort of thing you grow out of thats all .Bit like giving up on space invaders in the pub once you got old enough to drink !!

I was playing online on Forza today and as is normal, there were a selection of more mature keen racers who would do well (ahem), and a selection of young children. The kids generally chatter away on their microphones, scream at each other and say rude words

So an adult is playing games on a site frequented by young children, and then asks for advice on an adult who actually takes an intrest however innocently in a young lad, playing the same game.

Possibly totally innocent, but then how do you prove it is not just an innocent chat, and that youre using a gaming computer to play games with childeren that arent your own children.

Also like Edric, never played a computer gamer or had any intrest after ping in my life, seems a childrens thing.

Sadly it works both ways, and its just how suspicious parents and non parents have become, and if proved wrong may have very serious implications for the chaps relationships, work and social standing.

Now might be a good time to give up gaming, and buy a bike.

Also like Edric, never played a computer gamer or had any intrest after ping in my life, seems a childrens thing.

And this explains your previous comment which, if it weren’t for your complete lack of experience of gaming, and lack of knowledge of the context which the OP is describing, reads like it was taken straight from the Big Book Of Bollocks.

Maybe time to buy a notebook and stand on railway bridges with other nerds and write down numbers. I dunno, always seems like an activity for socially maladjusted weirdos to me.

No, when i ride a bike, i dont choose to ride with un accompnied children, just for the reasons above.

No, when i ride a bike, i dont choose to ride with un accompnied children, just for the reasons above.

What reasons?

You do understand how “going for a ride” differs from online gaming don’t you? Maybe you ought to try riding with kids sometime. You might lighten up as a result.

Maybe time to buy a notebook and stand on railway bridges with other nerds and write down numbers. I dunno, always seems like an activity for socially maladjusted weirdos to me.

But theyre all adults, and no need for the stupid contemptuous comments of others hobbies and pastimes, Eddie Stobart PLC, makes a considerable amount of money and good publicity from its eddie Stobatarts truck club, and they even feature quite often on channel 5, and are praised by the drivers for their commitment and intrest.

So were are informing on our fellow citizens without any proof that they’ve done anything wrong at all, are we?

I appreciate a certain amount of vigilance is required, but this seems like a long, slippery slope.

I also appreciate the OP’s concern, and I obviously wasn’t present to assess the context; it just leaves one a little uncomfortable.

GCHQ would be proud.

But theyre all adults, and no need for the stupid contemptuous comments of others hobbies and pastimes

Oh, is that what I did? Sheesh, it’s not a very nice thing to do is it?

Maybe I was doing it from an ignorant perspective, eh? Whaddya think?

GCHQ would be proud.

I don’t think GCHQ concern themselves too much with online groomers.

Maybe not, but the tactics are right up their alley.

Maybe not, but the tactics are right up their alley.

No, they just snoop on communications for national security.

No, they just snoop on communications for national security.

Well, that’s OK then.

Who’s informed on anyone?
No-one has done anything obviously wrong which is why i’m unsure. And that’s why I’m asking for collective advice. I’m certainly not going to hand any details over to the police right now for precisely the reasons stated above. It’d be unfair to claim someone was acting innappropriately if it’s just some friendly bloke who’s doing nothing wrong.

But theyre all adults, and no need for the stupid contemptuous comments of others hobbies and pastimes

Eh? You were doing precisely that about online gaming a minute ago.

Well, that’s OK then.

Is it? I’m not so keen. You didn’t sound too keen on it either a few posts back. Have you changed your mind?

Sorry, I left off the sarcasm emoticon.

Who’s informed on anyone?
No-one has done anything obviously wrong which is why i’m unsure. And that’s why I’m asking for collective advice. I’m certainly not going to hand any details over to the police right now for precisely the reasons stated above. It’d be unfair to claim someone was acting innappropriately if it’s just some friendly bloke who’s doing nothing wrong.

I wasn’t commenting on you, just on some of the comments above.

aye, sorry.

Also like Edric, never played a computer gamer or had any intrest after ping in my life, seems a childrens thing.

Assuming you mean “Pong” then things have moved on just a little bit since then.
Some games have bigger budgets (and better plots) than movies and are very much aimed at adults (or at least “not children”)

e.g. The Last Of Us:

People that dismiss games are the same sort of people that dismissed television or the motion picture.

“Thou shalt not think any male over the age of 30 that plays with a child that is not their own is a paedophile. Some people are just nice.” Dan le sac

Also most games are far more than child’s play . Any man who claims to have outgrown games is basically emotionally stunted .

Also like Edric, never played a computer gamer or had any intrest after ping in my life, seems a childrens thing.

I agree a crap ping can ruin you’re gaming.

I just think its the sort of thing you grow out of thats all

Any ideas when? Only, I’m 41 and currently playing Lego Star Wars.

It’s not getting old that makes you stop doing things, it’s stopping doing things that makes you old.

Incidentally,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_culture

As of 2011, the average age for a video game player is 37
…
ESA reported that 71% of people age six to forty-nine in the U.S. played video games

So, almost three quarters of the US (and I think it’s reasonable to expect UK figures aren’t dissimilar) are gamers, and the average age of gamers is 37.

With all due respect, I put it to you sir that you are just brimming over with wrongability.

Here’s this year’s data.

http://www.theesa.com/facts/gameplayer.asp

A couple of choice points,

The average gamer is 30 years old and has been playing for 13 years.

Sixty-eight percent of gamers are 18 or older.

Ninety-three percent of parents pay attention to the content of the games their children play, and are present when games are purchased or rented 89 percent of the time.

It’s a shame you’re not a gamer, you’d know what pwned means.

Divide and conquer. Divide and conquer…

It keeps the masses disparate. It keeps the masses in a state of distrust for each other and thus a state of trust in the minority power holders.

Whatever.

You’re being paranoid.. well-balanced children can generally tell when something’s wrong.
Many adults game, don’t wreck a man’s life for the sake of the Daily Mail.