Protecting Your Children While Playing Games Online

Parents have long accepted the fact that playing video games is part of their children’s daily activities. After the school bell rings, children make a mad dash to their rooms to play their video game of choice. Television has since taken a backseat and handed the new pastime crown to gaming consoles like PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii. The Internet-savvy kids usually ditch the console games, but spend many hours in front of the computer playing various online games. This is when parents tend to become a little bit nervous – and with good reasons. With the increasing number of online predators, kids who spend many hours online are easy targets.

Children who play online games are especially vulnerable because these online predators can easily blend with the online surroundings and sometimes mimic the kids that they plan to victimize or take advantage of. Games that require kids to interact with other people are usually the playground for online fiends. MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) are quite popular virtual hangout for kids and teens. These games have built text and voice chat channels that makes interaction easier while immersing in the game. Other online games may not be as complex as the MMORPGs, but they still attract kids and teens because the games are user-friendly and have a rather cartoon-ish feel about the games. But as long as there is a way to mingle with other players, there is always a threat.

Parents don’t need to be constantly babysitting their kids while playing as long as they set ground rules in using the Internet.  The basic rule is that the children should inform their parents when they are online or planning to go online. This way, parents will know when to check on them once in a while. Parents can list down kid-friendly websites that their kids can visit. Any deviation from that list will have to be checked by the parents.

The “don’t talk to strangers” rule should still apply in the virtual world, but it’s very tempting to interact since there is a feeling of anonymity when you are not talking to the other person face to face. All that needs to be done in this case is to tweak the rule a bit and allow kids to chat with others, but they are not allowed to divulge any personal information. This includes real name, age, email address, home address, and other confidential information. Children who are aware of this rule will be very cautious and are less vulnerable to online predators.

The next thing that parents can do is use parental control tools that are readily available online. There are online sites that serve as “cyber nannies” which can monitor the sites that your children visit. There are also tools that automatically ban questionable websites from showing up on the browsers. These are measures if the children insist on doing things their way. There really is no need for such control if they are responsible enough to know their limitations.

Parents should not be too worried when their children start learning the wonders of the Internet. If the children are given a set of ground rules and they are made to become aware of the bad things that lurk online, then the Internet will become a safer place for them.