Online Friends in Games: The Friend Request Talk

Someone wants to add your kid in Roblox or Fortnite, and you don't know who it is. This script gives your kid three questions to ask before they accept, one rule that's never up for debate, and the words that keep them telling you what happens online.

The Setup

Online friendships are real friendships. A kid who builds with the same three people every week in Minecraft has something worth protecting, and a blanket "no online friends" throws that away along with the risk. At the same time, not everyone online has good intentions, and your kid's judgment about people is still under construction.

So the job isn't to ban online friends. It's to teach your kid how to vet them, which is a skill they'll use for the rest of their life. The best time to have this talk is before the first request arrives, and the second-best time is tonight.

Where your kid sits on the Multiplayer Ladder matters here. Private online with known friends is one rung; stranger-safe online is a rung higher and needs these skills in place first. If the requests are coming from strangers and your kid is seven, the answer might be "we're not on that rung yet," and that's a calibration, not a punishment.

This script leans on two big ideas:

1. Teach the filter, not the fear. Three questions your kid can run on their own.
2. Keep the door open. They tell you things because telling you never gets them in trouble.