Looking Out For Your Children While Playing Games Online
We are faced with additional challenges compared to those that faced our parents. Back in the days of our youth almost all play took place outside the walls and protection of our house where concerns about skinned knees and bruises ran rampant, at worst we might talk to a stranger. These are just some of the issues or parents used to face. All grown up with families of our own we have (on top of the same problems our parents had) we have additional strain on us in the form of online video games. Online gaming usually offer two things that you might need to protect your child from. One is that some online games, since they offer anonymity, can be accessed by pedophiles and can talk to your child. Secondly we need to be aware of “griefers” or in layman’s terms cyber bullies who can make children’s online experiences bad.
Online gaming usually has a chatting option wherein our little one can chat with others. Mainly in strategy or barter based games talking is a huge part of the gameplay, but often talk spills over into the personal sphere. Stick to the basics before you go out and find your kids street fighter 4
To ensure your childrens safety online here are a few basic tips that I would suggest implementing in your house to protect them from grifers and pedophiles alike, just do these before you go and find halo wars or some other games:
1. Make sure your child understands – When your implement rules and boundaries on online gameplay be sure to let them know the purpose. Explain that its not that you do not trust him, its just that you are not very trusting when it comes to other people.
2. Relocate the computer – Make sure that the computer is in the kitchen or the living room area. It makes it a lot easier to oversee your kids gameplay when you ar earound them reglaurly. Also, if the computer is in a well trafficked area, your child will also be able to interact with people in the real world.
3. Educate – Tell your child to never give out the following information to people online:
a. Real name
b. Contact details like address and phone number
c. State
d. Passcodes
e. Social security numbers
4. Make sure that they use a pseudonym as a log in ID.
5. Ignore – Ignore both strangers and bullies online. Strangers like this are looking for easy prey, if you just don’t respond they will go away after a few seconds.
6. Keep above those below you – Tell your child that if a griefer is very persistent to never attack him the way they tried to attack your child. This will only make matters worse.
7. Ask an adult – Tell your child that when in doubt, when they do not know what to do and when they are scared, to ask help from you. Tell them that even if you are busy, even if you are not even at home, that they can call you up in the office or in your cell phone to ask help or to let you know what scared them.
Keep all this in mind when your kids are engaged in online gaming and they should be able to stay safe resident evil 5
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