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The Video Game Stalker:

Newer video games connect to the internet. No, not just the computer video games. Most of the games that are played on your big screen TV, like those of the Xbox 360, establish an internet connection through your household modem. This enables kids to network with other game players online. They can send text messages to one another, and even chat live over headsets. Not only is their gaming profile available for viewing by complete strangers, but their texting and chatting sessions with these strangers is unregulated. Gaming sites like xfire.com make it easy to track other gamers. They even send out notifications when one of your marked gamers comes online. What’s more, your home IP address is used to create these little technological miracles, which means that technosavy strangers can instantly find out what town your child lives in, what websites and forums they visit, when they are most often online, and in some cases, what name is displayed on your internet bill.

For some innocent gamers, this has turned into a BIG and lasting problem. Offended opponents can get nasty. Gaming squabbles can spill over into real-world conflicts. And it goes without saying that sexual predators will go where the kids are, and the kids are playing video games.
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What can you do?

Talk to your child about this potential threat. Set reasonable limits on who they can talk to and what information they give out. Make sure they understand how easy it is to develop, and be fooled by, a fictional persona in the online environment. It’s also good to review their own conduct while online, and warn them against offending people who may later seek to harass your child in retaliation.

One of my favorite suggestions came from a parent who wrote in to tell how she used her neighbor’s gaming set to join her own child in an online game. She played miserably, and started a text-chat session about how to improve. The text-chat moved to live-chat over a headset. Her son didn’t realize he was talking to his own mother until she told him that she was coming over so he could teach her in person.