How Online Gaming Endangers Our Children
(This Article Is Reproduced with The Courtesy and Thanks to “Friday Times”)
A young girl’s online gaming chat turns dangerous, exposing the grave risks of cyberbullying and predators, and urging parents to safeguard their children
The nightmare which befell a very close friend started with a formal sweet message to his 12-year-old daughter. She was playing a video game with a stranger and was winning. Suddenly, the first message popped up on the screen: “What a great player you are!” She replied with an innocent, “Thank you”. And thus started the chat, which engulfed the young lady and nearly ruined her.
It was the mother who noticed her addiction to the screen. That day, she just sat and observed the game. The name of the player her daughter was playing with was handsome dude. To her shock, the message which saved her daughter appeared on the screen (she later told us that it seemed like all life had seeped out of her and she was dead):
“You are very beautiful. Especially your eyes. I want to see more of you so I can worship you, my dearest.”
Her daughter tried to cover it up as any teenager would do. But the lioness in the mother had awakened. She immediately called my friend, who rushed home. In his distress, he called me, and I reached their house. It seemed that the parents were having a heart attack. After calming them down, I started talking to the daughter.
After the first message, chatting had started. The cyber-stalker started asking questions and leading the conversation. He/she started pressing her for pictures. Slowly, the bullying started. And then the threats came. After being repeatedly coaxed and threatened, the girl sent two pictures of her face. The cyberbully became bolder. The next demand was for explicit pictures. The girl did not know what to do. She talked to a couple of friends who also did not know what to do. She was afraid of talking to her parents as she knew that they would get very angry. There was no one else she could confide in. The bullying became so severe that she was up all night chatting with the bully. She pleaded, begged, but to no avail, and the pressure became unbearable.
To her good luck, her mother saw the message and we all got involved. Concerned authorities were approached, but the IP address came from a foreign country, and the criminal, realising that something was wrong, deleted the account and vanished. The young girl was saved from a very damaging and dangerous situation, which would have ruined her life.
Video games are the new menace. Although they have been around for decades, in the last few years, they have grown in lethality and decadence, especially where the players interconnect to play a game but do not know about the other player’s identity.
According to the American Academy of Paediatrics, in 2020 kids spending over 3 hours of screen time daily may face health issues like obesity, poor posture and eye strain. The World Health Organisation recognises “Gaming disorder” as a condition which leads to depression, gaming addiction and non-social attributes.
Many games, especially online multiplayer ones, expose youngsters to violence, explicit language or toxic behaviour. And once kids start playing games rated for adults, it is curtains. It becomes much more serious, as per Pew Research 2020, only 30% of parents exercise rudimentary control.
And these are figures for the West. In Pakistan, one can imagine nearly zero control as parents are either too busy, especially where both work, or do not have any idea of this menace. The example is of my friend who, despite being in a top position in an MNC, had no clue about it.
A major impact of excessive gaming is social isolation, which leads to loneliness and then depression. Once one becomes addicted, sleep disruption occurs. Gaming before bed, especially on screens emitting blue light, can disrupt sleep patterns. According to research done by Hale and Guan (2015), kids who game past 9 pm tend to lose 1–2 hours of sleep every night, which affects their mental/physical health and academic performance.
The biggest danger is harassment, bullying and sexual explicitness. In the USA, 85% of teens play video games and 43% report bullying, including name-calling (41%), physical threats and unwanted explicit content (12%). Boys face more physical harassment in multiplayer games, but girls are targeted for sexual pestering. The predators have found this new avalanche of gaming very rewarding. They often pose as peers and manipulate the young kids. The biggest advantage to them is their invisibility, as the child has no idea who is on the other side. The dark web is also a major catalyst. Once an explicit picture is shared, the real nightmare starts. Sites exist where viewers pay for explicit content.
So, what to do? The foremost requirement is to realise that this is a LIFE-THREATENING situation for our children. The most appropriate action is to ensure that a maximum of 1 hour is given on weekends. And one of the parents either plays or watches closely to spot issues.
Checking online friends is a must. Maximum effort should be made not to play with an unknown. The best option is that kids play with their friends, and no strangers are allowed.
The privacy limits need to be set for each game by the parents. This is of utmost importance as no stranger can chat or send messages, and this would go a long way in safeguarding the child. Parents need to use built-in controls like disabling voice chat, enabling reporting and setting privacy, e.g. Roblox/PlayStation parental tools. Moreover, installing software to block doxing/phishing/chat controls is of great help. We need to sit down with our kids and discuss this menace in detail. Make up a list of dos and don’ts.
For example, kids should never share personal information. A feeling that there is a bully on the other side, he/she should be blocked immediately. They should immediately talk to the parents, who have to be sensible and empathetic. I have narrated the above story, my esteemed readers, to make you cognisant of the Frankenstein monster being unleashed on Gen Zs and act before it is too late. We are always guarding our children from physical dangers, but now I feel that cyberspace poses a much more serious danger. If they hurt themselves, they can be medically cured.
But if they once share an explicit picture or get sucked into the vortex of debauchery of a predator, believe me, hardly anything can be done. The impact on the child and the family cannot be imagined.
Wake up, my dearest parents, before it is too late.
