When compared to social media, an endless void of fake profiles, having a child hooked on a video-game seems preferable. There’s usually a story to follow, goals to meet, and is an overall beloved hobby, believed to have a mostly-men fanbase. 14-year-old Breck LaFave was one of many youths enjoying his free time in front of a gaming console after arriving home every day- until one Breck went to see a friend, and would never return. The man behind the tragedy was his upperclassman, 18-year-old Lewis Daynes, who had formed a relationship with Breck by talking to him through video-games and their ever-evolving equipment. They simply shared their after-school pastime, or so Breck believed.
As she formed foundation that “campaigns for a safer internet” in her son’s name, grieving mother Lorin LaFave unravelled how her son had been manipulated and, more specifically, groomed, for a year. Her biggest obstacle was everyone- even the police-‘s denial, as Daynes did not fit the profile associated with predators. As Ms. Lafave describes, Daynes was “a clever, handsome and liked boy, but also an everyday "schoolboy" wearing the same uniform as all of the other guys”. Looking back at Daynes complimenting and mentoring Breck in coding and encrypting, Ms. LaFave admitted to Sky News, “I saw signs that Breck was being groomed over the period of a year, but I couldn't get him or others to believe that he was in danger.” Then, on his mother’s birthday, it happened: Breck was lured into Daynes’ home with the pretense of an afternoon of gaming, where Daynes sexually assaulted the boy before murdering him. The defining moral of the story that Ms. LaFave says she can pass on is that “boys can be groomed too, and predators can be any age or gender.” [1]
For more on the grave lessons the LaFave family had to learn and their current activism, head to the statement provided to Sky News’: https://news.sky.com/story/my-son-was-murdered-by-a-teenager-he-met-online-through-gaming-11931414
Parents Beware
A cruel part of growing up is your mistakes being made light of by elders, who seem have the collective mindset that they would never fall for such “obvious” traps. On the other hand, children are a blessing not appreciated by all, but desired by an overwhelming majority. In the United States alone, there are an estimated of one or two million couples looking to adopt. Why, then, have adoption rates dwindled from a worldwide total of 46,000 in 2005 to 12,000 in 2015 [2]?
It is no secret that adoption is a draining process both emotionally and economically. Integrating a healthy infant into a family in the United States in the United States can cost $30,000 or more [3]. The journey aspiring parents embark on can take two years, that is if the fees and security checks run smoothly. Instead of a support network, however, an unfortunate number of couples have met with a unique type of online predator.
Meet Ashley King, a 16-year-old who has replied to couples’ adoptions ads with good news- she’s giving her baby up, and they are the lucky receivers! The problem? Ashley has never been pregnant. After months of exchanging calls and photos, the couples are “ghosted”- never hearing back from Ashley. "Even though in the back of your head you know that it's probably not real, there's that glimmer, that feeling that there's a 1% chance it could be," Samantha Stewart, co-founder of the blog Beware of the Adoption Scam told BBC News. "And you go with it anyway." [4].
The twist? Ashley is a married 22-year-old whose identity was stolen, not from the assumed middle-aged male catfish, but by a fellow young woman, Gabby Watson. Starting her attention-seeking schemes at 16, 23-year-old Gabby has admitted to scamming hundreds of couples. Since she has not profited from the situation- monetarily, that is-, prosecution for this predator is hard, the FBI noting that is still too uncommon [6]. Unaided by authorities, spreading awareness to other potential victims is the drive behind the Stewarts’ blog. As of September of 2020, Gabby’s alias has changed multiple times despite her public- and reluctant- appearance on The Dr Phil Show, last caught as Paige_Ranae [5].
Bibliography:
[1] LaFave, L., 2020. My Son Was Murdered by a Teenager He Met through Online Gaming. [online] Sky News. Available at: https://news.sky.com/story/my-son-was-murdered-by-a-teenager-he-met-online-through-gaming-11931414 [Accessed 11 February 2020].
[2] US Adoption Statistics. 2020. Adoption Network. [online] Available at: https://adoptionnetwork.com/adoption-myths-facts/domestic-us-statistics/ [Accessed 18 December 2020].
[3] McFadden, D., Marino, S., Buczek, A. and Jacobs, C., 2021. FAQs. [online] Adoption Center. Available at: https://www.adopt.org/faqs [Accessed 13 March 2021].
[4] Pallas, N., 2019. The Fake Baby Instagram Adoption Scam. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-49425794 [Accessed 23 August 2019].
[5] Stewart, S., 2019. Gabby Wabby's Adoption Scam. [online] BEWARE THE ADOPTION SCAM. Available at: https://ngaadoptionscam.blogspot.com/2019/10/beware-adoption-scam.html [Accessed 28 October 2019].
[6] Pallas, N., 2020. She Pretends to Have a Baby for Adoption - Can She Get Help to Stop?. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-50644595 [Accessed 15 February 2020].
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