{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Ending Human Trafficking","title":"382: Would Your Child Tell You If a Stranger Online Started Grooming Them?","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2044,"description":"Brenden Billinger joins Dr. Sandie Morgan to explain how a child 10 feet away, playing a game you've seen 100 times, can still be talking to a stranger who wants to exploit them, and what parents and grandparents can do so that child tells them early.\n\nChapters\n\n\n\nAbout Brenden Billinger\n\nBrenden Billinger is a Senior Sheriff's Investigator with the Orange County Sheriff's Department, where he has served since 2012. He began in a custody setting, then worked in compliance and training, patrol, specialized enforcement, and undercover assignments before moving into criminal investigations. On the Special Victims Detail, he investigates child sexual abuse, sexual assault, online exploitation, sextortion, and grooming cases, working alongside prosecutors, forensic interviewers, medical professionals, victim advocates, schools, and local and federal law enforcement. He has served as a crisis negotiator since 2016 and now leads his department's Crisis Negotiation Team. He trains parents, educators, and advocates on how offenders use social media, gaming platforms, messaging apps, and emerging technology to reach children, and on recognizing grooming before it escalates. He is continuing his education in criminal justice. A husband and the father of two daughters, Brenden sees protecting children as work that parents, educators, coaches, advocates, and law enforcement share, and that starts with talking early.\n\nKey Points\n\n• Ask who your child is talking to the way you would at a playground. Grandparents grew up warned about the stranger with a car; that stranger is still out there, and now he's online. Sit with your kids and ask: Who is that? What is that game? Did we check with that kid's parents?\n• Know the pattern. Brenden's cases mirror each other: a message in a Roblox or Minecraft group chat, a move to another chat room, then to an encrypted app such as Discord, Signal, WhatsApp, or Telegram, then demands for money. The youngest child he has seen exploited this...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/xWqg-xgg5mSOF8tQInFzWyL4peksFHIxGXhrbQ4TxT4/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8yZWQ2/NGM5NWMwNTJhNjEw/YWQ2N2YyZDY5MWFj/NTRhMi5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}