A Canadian teenage girl took her own life after being encouraged by online predators who also convinced her to film a video in which she tried to murder her family's cat.
Jason Sokolowski said his daughter Penelope, 15, died by suicide last February after being groomed on the internet by the online extremist group called 764.
Sokolowski, of British Columbia, said the group turned his life into an 'insane horror movie,' according to CTV News, and gradually escalated how they abused Penelope over time.
'I came into the bathroom and she had cut up her legs,' Sokolowski told the outlet, adding that they helped her seek medical care afterwards.
He said 764 increasingly edged Penelope towards harmful behavior and encouraged her to film it.
'There is video of my daughter trying to kill my cat, which got sent to me by members of the group,' Sokolowski said.
Penelope took her own life last February, three days before what would have been her 16th birthday, but Sokolowski said other suicide attempts may have been witnessed by an online audience.
'I would say three to four other attempts, and they may or may not have been livestreamed or put out there on Twitch or Discord,' he said.
Penelope Sokolowski, 15, took her own life last year three days before her 16th birthday
Jason Sokolowski, Penelope's father, said his daughter was groomed by online predators, who even coerced her to film a video in which she attempted to kill the family's cat
Sokolowski claimed that Penelope was manipulated by an individual on Roblox, which she had first signed up for when she was around seven or eight.
'As a dad I thought, oh, this is nice, she's artistic, and she's made artistic friends,' Sokolowski told the New York Post in February. 'But I didn't understand what Roblox was and its effect on her.'
Penelope's grades began slipping as a teenager and she was self-harming by the time she was 14, Sokolowski said.
Penelope later admitted to her father that a self-harm group had recruited her through Roblox, though she insisted she was no longer a part of it.
But after Penelope's suicide, Sokolowski said he found about two years worth of messages on her cellphone with an individual who encouraged his daughter to mutilate herself.
At one point, Penelope sent the person a photo of herself, suggesting she could cut her chest but 'definitely couldnt [sic] go too deep bc thats [sic] tough to bandage n im not tryna get an infection,' per text messages obtained by the outlet.
She later sent a follow-up picture of the person's Discord username written on her bloodied chest.
'They are grooming girls to do whatever it is they can get a girl to do, whether it's nudes or cuts or gore or violence,' Sokolowski said. 'She was brainwashed all the way through.'
Roblox said it was 'deeply troubled by any incident that endangers any user,' according to the New York Post.
'We also understand that no system is perfect and that is why we are constantly working to further improve our safety tools and platform restrictions to ensure parents can trust us to help keep their children safe online,' the company added.
Penelope father said her grades started slipping and she began self-harming by the time she was a teenager
He said the online extremist group called 764 had turned his life into an 'insane horror movie' and sent him the video of Penelope trying to kill the family cat
Sokolowski remembered Penelope as a completely different person before she began interacting with the group.
'She would just create and see beauty in almost everything in a way that most people didn't,' he told CTV News.
Sokolowski explained that he and Penelope's mother thought they were keeping a watchful eye on their daughter's online activity.
'My ex had a parenting app on her phone that kind of told her what she was watching, what she was searching and all of that,' he said.
The grieving father added that he 'made the effort of generally being in her room sometimes just to see what she was doing' and 'took a genuine interest in her world.'
Her dad said the 764 group was systematically targeting youngsters and attempting to wreck their lives.
'They are grooming and teaching children how to do as much chaos and damage within their home and their community and the institutions that they go to, before they ultimately do an act of violence on themselves or someone else,' Sokolowski said.
Sokolowski said he believed social media has turned out to be 'just as dangerous to children' as many vices.
'We don't let kids drive cars, use guns, drink alcohol,' he said.
Sokolowski alleged Penelope had been manipulated by an individual on Roblox, which she had initially signed up when she was seven or eight years old (File photo of a child on Roblox)
The FBI has described the 764 network as a 'violent online group made-up of individuals who seek to coerce and manipulate children into engaging in unspeakable acts against themselves, animals, and other children, even suicide.'
In December, the Department of Justice announced that Alexis Aldair Chavez, an online leader of a related group, had pleaded guilty to racketeering and child exploitation.
The charges against Chavez, 19, detailed how the online group has used similar tactics on teens around the world.
For instance, it was alleged that Chavez had coerced a female minor to torture and kill a cat on a live video call in December 2023. Other instances of grooming included forcing female minors to drink their own urine and light their arm on fire.
In Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has warned that they are 'seeing more and more acts of this group online.'
'It's a global phenomenon especially linked to the English-speaking population,' RCMP constable Marie-Pierre Guertin said.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Sokolowski and Roblox for further comment.
If you or someone you know needs help, please call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US on 988. There is also an online chat available at 988lifeline.org.