Kids Don’t Need More Online Monitoring. They Need Involved Dads.

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As a girl dad, I was horrified by a recent story about two girls in Florida who were groomed online by a man they met through the gaming platform Roblox. He lured the girls into trusting him and then abducted them. Thankfully, law enforcement intervened before the worst happened. But the relief of a rescue should not blunt the warning embedded in this story.

It may be fair to direct our outrage at the platform, lax moderation, or the internet itself. But focusing only on the digital predator misses a deeper and more uncomfortable truth: Children who are guided at home are far harder to groom.

This isn’t to say the family in this case was negligent or uncaring. But if you’re a parent, the biggest thing you can do to protect your children online is not to buy new parental control software or limit their screentime. The best way to help your kids is to let them know that you’re present, you’re listening, and you’re there to provide guidance.

Our culture has lowered expectations for fathers, especially when it comes to vigilance, authority, and involvement. And when fathers retreat from those roles, children are left exposed, not just online, but everywhere.

Predators start with attention. They look for children who are bored, lonely, unsure, unsupervised, or unseen. They exploit curiosity and emotional gaps long before they exploit technology. Online platforms don’t create those vulnerabilities. They reveal them.

For decades now, we’ve told men, explicitly and implicitly, that fatherhood is unessential. Nowhere is that message reinforced more consistently than on television. The modern TV father is rarely a figure of authority or competence. He’s the lovable idiot or the well-meaning buffoon.

In Modern Family, one of the most popular sitcoms of the past two decades, patriarch Phil Dunphy is charming, enthusiastic, and affectionate, but he’s also chronically unserious. When real decisions need to be made, he’s not the one calling the shots.

Look at Homer Simpson, perhaps the most influential fictional dad in American pop culture. For generations, he’s been the butt of The Simpsons’ jokes. Sitcoms and movies treat fathers as nothing but punchlines. 

When our culture tells us fatherhood is unnecessary, we shouldn’t be surprised when real men absorb the message. You don’t have to be absent to be disengaged. You just have to believe that your presence doesn’t really matter.

An engaged father changes everything. I know what my kids are playing and watching because we talk about it. We discuss what brings them joy and what bothers them. Rather than judging their decisions, I start conversations about them. I am their content filter.

Predators rely on secrecy, isolation, and emotional manipulation to operate. When kids are seen, protected, and navigating life with their fathers, it rips the pages from that playbook.

When regular conversation and open communication between a parent and child, especially a father, is the norm, it becomes easier for kids to recognize evil. And when it’s revealed, the “I didn’t know who to tell” moment never arrives because someone has already been listening.

This is where modern parenting often goes wrong. We’ve outsourced too much responsibility to screens and software. We trust parental controls more than parental presence. We assume that because a platform markets itself as “safe,” our role has diminished. It hasn’t. It has intensified.

Fatherhood now requires engagement in spaces our fathers never had to patrol. That can feel unfamiliar. But discomfort is not an excuse for abdication. A dad doesn’t need to be a gamer to ask questions. He doesn’t need to understand every app to establish rules. He doesn’t need technical mastery to exercise authority. He needs willingness: a willingness to say no, to exert authority, and to ask questions.

One of those questions should be, “Who are you talking to?” Too many fathers fear this type of confrontation with their kids. But failing to engage opens up avenues of exploitation that far outweigh the consequences of an uncomfortable conversation. 

Children seek connection. If they aren’t finding it at home, they will find it elsewhere. The internet is not just a playground. It’s a marketplace of attention. And predators know how to sell.

Strong fatherhood fills that void before it opens.

Children are not equipped to navigate adult dangers alone, especially in a digital world designed to blur age, identity, and intent. We should absolutely demand accountability from tech companies. We should support law enforcement. We should aggressively prosecute predators. But we should also confront the cultural lie that says fathers are spectators in their children’s lives.

When fathers step up, visibly, confidently, and consistently, kids are safer — not perfectly safe, but safer.

The story of these girls should make us not only angry but also serious about supervision, involvement, and reclaiming the role of fathers as protectors. The internet didn’t create this danger. It simply exposed what happens when we pretend that presence doesn’t matter. It does. And a father’s presence matters more than he can ever know.

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Gates Garcia is the host of the YouTube show and podcast “We The People.” Follow him on Instagram and X @GatesGarciaFL.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.