You’re a teenager, alone in your room, playing a game on your phone. The screen lights up as you deftly maneuver your character through treacherous obstacles. The goal is to survive: stay alert, watch the doors, anticipate danger. It’s tense, even thrilling. You and your friends laugh about it the next day, swapping strategies and narrow escapes.
Now imagine the game you’re playing is built around the real-life exploitation and abuse of hundreds of young victims at the hands of a convicted sex offender.
This is the premise behind an online game circulating among students nationwide known as “Five Nights at Epstein’s.” It takes themes of sexual abuse and trafficking and turns them into entertainment. As reported by several news outlets, including NPR, not only are kids playing the game, but they’re also sharing video tutorials of how to access it in places where it might be blocked, including schools and libraries. These videos are racking up millions of views.
While some may dismiss this as dark humor or harmless game play, the impact is anything but. When abuse and exploitation are reduced to a game, it desensitizes young people to the seriousness of these crimes, and further dehumanizes those who have endured them. For survivors, this kind of content can be deeply painful and isolating. In recent years, our counselors and Child Abuse Response Effort forensic interviewers have reported a rise in child-on-child sexual abuse, a trend games like this will only serve to exacerbate.
At LACASA, we work every day with survivors of child abuse, domestic violence, and sexual violence. We see the long-lasting impact of these experiences, and how critical it is that the entire community stands up to believe survivors and refuses to trivialize their trauma.
Parents, educators, and community members all have a role to play. Talk to young people about what they are seeing and sharing online. Challenge the normalization of content that makes light of harm. Reinforce empathy, respect, and accountability.
This is not about panic. It is about awareness, but it can’t end there. What we do next matters.
April is both National Child Abuse Prevention Month and Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and we urge everyone to use this as an opportunity to check in with the children in your life. We are here as a resource for families, schools, and community members who need support in navigating these conversations.
Bobette Schrandt is president and CEO of LACASA
Elizabeth Stahl is LACASA’s vice president for children’s services
