Children in America have been safely playing video games for decades.
But the emergence of online video games opened the door for child predators.
And a Florida woman told a 10-year-old boy how to do one thing that left the local sheriff disturbed and unable to sleep.
In 1975, Atari introduced the first at-home video gaming system for sale in the Sears Catalog.
Video games became an instant hit among the American public and they have been wildly popular ever since.
Of course, video gaming systems have changed a lot since the introduction of the Atari in the 1970s.
Today, there are a wide range of gaming consoles, such as Nintendo, Xbox, and PlayStation.
And playing video games are more popular than ever.
In 2022, 22% of US adults aged 18 to 29 years spent six to ten hours per week playing video games.
According to Newzoo’s Global Games Market Report, there were about 3.31 billion gamers worldwide in 2023.
But the introduction of online video games completely changed the industry.
Friends could play their favorite game against each other from anywhere in the world without having to be in the same room in front of the same TV.
However, it does have its downsides.
Online video games can be dangerous to children due to potential exposure to inappropriate content, cyberbullying, and online predators.
Roblox is one of the new multi-billion dollar gaming platforms and is a favorite for child predators.
“The internet’s biggest recreation zone for kids is fighting to keep predators away, and it’s not always winning,” Bloomberg reported about Roblox in June.
With over 36 million users, half of them under age 13, Roblox is the world’s biggest recreation zone for kids.
And the police down in Escambia County, Florida just saw firsthand how dangerous online video games can be for children.
The police responded to a call from the Gulf Coast Kid’s House, a children’s advocacy center, about a 2-month-old infant who suffered serious injuries from being dropped on the kitchen floor by a 10-year-old boy.
Upon investigation, police discovered that the 10-year-old boy had been playing video games online through Roblox.
And what they discovered was outright sickening.
A 36-year-old woman, Tara Alexis Sykes, gave the 10-year-old boy instructions on how to get away with murdering the two-month-old child and the family he lived with.
“An investigation revealed that Sykes had instructed a 10-year-old to purposefully drop a 2-month-old on a solid tile floor in an attempt to end the infant’s life,” the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a press release.
Sykes gave the 10-year-old boy several options for killing the child and the family without getting caught.
“Sykes instructed the 10-year-old to drown the infant in the bathtub, burn the infant with scalding water, and drop the infant on the floor to kill the infant,” the police wrote in the release. “Additionally, Sykes had instructed the 10-year-old on how to kill the adults the 10-year-old was temporarily living with by cutting their throats with a knife while they slept and burning their house by dousing bed sheets with aerosol spray and setting them on fire.”
According to the report, “the 10-year-old doused the sheets but was unable to carry out the instructions.”
Sheriff Chip W. Simmons has been in law enforcement for 40 years, but he said this was the most disturbing thing he had ever seen.
“I have been in Law Enforcement for over 40 years and have never seen anything quite like this,” he said. “I am truly disturbed by the circumstances and the thought that anyone could think like this, let alone instruct these acts to be carried out.”
“There is something really wrong with her,” he added.
The Sheriff is right.
And Sykes was arrested and charged with attempted murder while engaged in aggravated child abuse.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
