The increase in the number of children arriving at school frightened or too scared to go home for fear online predators will be at their house, has resulted in some teachers spending valuable learning time comforting students and acting more like counsellors than educators.

So concerned is Rutherford Public School relieving Deputy Principal Candice Morphett, that she has organised a community meeting to address the problem.

She has invited nationally acclaimed cyber safety expert Leonie Smith to address the adults only meeting in a bid to brief parents on what they can do to help their children.

“We’re trying to make parents more aware of just how dangerous cyber land can be and what they can do to help their kids to stay safe,” Ms Morphett said.

“Most kids have iPhones, iPads and computers and what we are not realising is what they get up to when parents go to bed,” she said.

“This is a daily struggle and it’s bigger than Rutherford, t’s a world wide problem but if we start to make small changes at a community level we hope it will have a positive impact.”

Ms Morphett said at her school there is some online bullying. “We also know kids are accessing adult content and using the Internet to send pictures of themselves to people they don’t know,” she said.

She cited Roblox as an app where it is easy to interact with other people.

“Kids can interact with strangers and we have had instances where those strangers are asking kids were they live, who is with them and where in the house is their bedroom,” she said. “Some have the most revolting things said to them.”

Roblox is a technical platform that allows children to create games and experiences for each other. It allows them to create experiences through imagination and develop friendships on a platform through virtual games, hanging out in high school, a pizza place or in a virtual home.

Roblox Vice President of Marketing and Community Saftey Tami Bhaumik said Roblox has a number of parental features focusing on user safety. She said Roblox takes this very seriously and has tailored a number of filters of varied strengths for different age groups.

“If children are under the age of 13 parents can flick a switch and block violence for example,” she said. “From a chat stand point where there is the ability to select no chat, chat with friends or chat with everyone and have the ability to make decisions on what's right for their family,” Ms Bhaumik said.

“We’re allowing these kids to find careers and passions around software programing.”

Ms Bhaumik said parents don't understand the parental features Roblox has put in place.

“A lot of parents don’t understand the technology or features available to them and our goal is to educate parents so things aren’t so overwhelming for them,” she said.

Roblox has a division of its operation dedicated to constantly building features which focus on community safety.

“We have a moderation and customer success group making sure we have our eyes and ears open. Our moderation team is consistently reviewing content.

“We have several ways of allowing users and parents to notify us of bad behaviour on the platform.”

Se said any reports made to Roblox regarding safety is looked at within five minutes.

“We have a fast response to parents in relation to anything that doesn't feel right.”

Roblox’s user base is predominately children aged eight to mid-teens.

“One of out most popular game hangouts is Meet City where there is a high school, bank, parks. You can go fishing and sometimes kids may ask where’s your house? Or do you have a cool bedroom,” Ms Bhaumik said.

“We don’t allow people to publish phone numbers or personal information like addresses but there is always ways people try to get around these filters and that’s a constant factor for us,” she said.

Roblox has a parents guide on its website. It contains a video and gives a full run down of what Roblox and its team do.

According to Ms Morphett Mondays are the worst with parents acknowledging their children have had too much technology over the weekend.

“Kids come to school and they have already spent a couple of hours on a device where they are sworn at and exposed to nudity. These kids can access explicit movies, photographs which they can upload. There doesn’t seem to be an age demographic and we are seeing children as low as Year 2 exposed to this,” Ms Morphett said. “We are worried about the long term psychological damage this could have on children.”

The school has been working with Maitland Police. “They’re flat out and there’s not a lot they can do unless they know specifically who a child is speaking to.”

Wednesday’s meeting, which is open to the public, will be held in Rutherford Public School hall from 5.30pm. Child minding will be offered in the library.