I reply to myself because I want to go further into my experiences with non gaming parents.

I worked at a computer and software store for a few months, and it became obvious my specialty was video games. ^.^ So I ended up selling a lot, but you may or may not be surprised how many parents came in with their 9 to 12 year old children wanting to buy them World of Warcraft.. When they asked I always asked if the parents played already and often they'd say no, so I'd ask where the child heard about the game and 90% of the time they heard from a friend at school who plays either by themselves are on their parent's account.

So then I'd ask the parents is they were aware that this is an online game and that anyone at all can interact with their child and, often this was enough to enlighten some but other times I really had to drive the point home like saying it's in your best interest to sit beside your child as they play and to set parental controls to make sure your child does suffer any kind of abuse. Now THAT usually does the trick, the only parents willing to go through those lengths are MMO gamers themselves. ;)