| I was talking with a friend whose husband has a
problem with online gambling. He goes at work every morning, he's a
normal man, doesn't have any other bad habits, at least she said it :).
But he likes to visit online gambling sites and have some gambling software installed on his computer. My friend was worried that their 8 years boy could access them through her husband's account.
Then, when I was doing some research for today's
article I thought that this issue could be good to discuss about it.
And so I discovered that there are parents really concerned about their children activity on gaming and gambling sites.
Many kids use the Internet to play online games. But
often when you use search engines to find game sites, you also find
gambling sites. Banner ads and pop-ups for casinos are everywhere on
the Web. While games sites are free and usually feature card, arcade,
puzzle game types with automatic tracking and scoring, gambling sites
involve winning or losing actual money.
Due to the nature of Internet, online gambling sites cannot physically check a visitor's age or prevent them from accessing the site.
However after reading several online releases and visiting online
gambling sites (yes I did that to see how `easy` can you sign up),
we've come up with a list of things that us, as parents, can do to protect our children from online gambling risks.
1. Check where the kids are going online and what they're doing;
2. Establish rules about what games they can play;
3. Remind them that it is illegal to gamble and explain them how usually gambling works and that it can be addictive;
4. Make sure you check every time they ask you about your credit card number or other personal/financial data;
5. If you use these kind of software, make sure you don't use the `save password` feature;
6. Create separate profiles for children on your home PCs;
7. Use parental control software. |
