Staying+safe+with+online+gaming

=Staying safe with online gaming = Everybody especially children love playing games. The kind of games, the age of people playing them and the location of the games has changed a lot since the past. Earlier the games played would be like PAC man and chess which were small but entertaining. Now some people still play those kind of games but most people like to play games with some sort of story line so that the people can save the games and continue them later if they want. Earlier only children used to play games but now people of almost all age groups play games. In fact most of the games made today are made for people of above 18 years of ages or for mature audiences. Nobody would care to play games with real people on the computer earlier where as now people just like to play games through the net with other people continuously chatting/talking with them.

Since gaming has become so advanced and fun it has also brought some cons with it. Gaming online is very dangerous and can harm many people now. Thus it is both the gamer's and gamer's parents' responsibility to protect the computer. Sometimes unaware people let out some important information. They might not know that people now a days can HACK into others computers and can do all sorts of nasty things. To avoid things like this to happen there are many sites that provide help. They mention the pro's to gaming as well as the con's. Also for adults that have been newly introduced to computers, there are many experts out there that can help by explaining how gaming is safe.

=**The dangers of online gaming **=

**Addiction**
The games available online are quite fun to play which might make the gamer addicted to the website and its games. This addiction leads to numerous problems such as eyesight problem, back problem and other relationship problems. Eye sight problem is perhaps the easiest to get and easiest to recognize. The rays that come out of the computer greatly damage the eyes and suck the water out of them, making them dry. Many people these days (especially children) have bad eyesight, which is greatly due to this. If a person is very ingrossed in a game it is likely that he will bend and play that online game. This will clearly result in back problems like a bent backbone. Addicted people would ot be able to stay off from computers for too long, which will interupt their social lives greatly. They might interact with strangers and a few friends, online through chatting while playing games, but would not be able to do physical interaction. Since, so many children love to go online to play games, they are required to make an account with the website. These websites are often in the hands of spammers, which send many spam messages, monthly, weekly, or even daily. The spams might contain viruses that can completely damage your computer, or links to such viruses. They might also contain links to innapropriate sites. Seeing the number of people logging in to play games online, advertisement companies pay them to display their ads to the world. Often, it happens that the advertisement is a pop up to inapropriate content that children by mistake open. Most of the games these days, whether online or not, contain an immense amount of violence in them. This results in the person playing the game, also getting involved in fights. The person playing can get really shot tempered, starting a fight on every small topic. Just like violence, the games, these days also have a lot of sexual content in them, the games with such content are often played by youngsters since the gaming websites do not have much to check whether you are young or not. Playing online is so interesting because the gamer can interact with other gamers online. This is also very bad as it might result in cyber bullying. Since the age range of people playing online is so great, Many young people can get bullied by the old. Some children without realizing the harm that can be done, also give their email adresses and passwords to strangers, who then can use the information in it, like credit card numbers to steal money. Allowing children to play free video games does not earn the website owners a lot of money, so they sell items in the game worth real money. Children get fascinated with these items and go and ask their parents for the credit card numbers to buy them. The next thing, the parents know is that 50$ have been deducted from their account, in buying "Mafia Wars Limited collection of War Tigers" or something of that sort.
 * Spam**
 * Advertisements**
 * Violence**
 * Sexual Content**
 * Online interaction**
 * Loss of Money**

**Prevention Tips for Children**

 * Set a separate time for online gaming, follow those times exactly and you wouldn't be addicted to gaming at all.
 * Try to recognize when you think that you are becoming an addict. See the amount of time you spend gaming online, Do you think it is too much? If yes, then reduce this time.
 * Many sites are out there that provide free gaming, some sites may have viruses in them and send you lots of spam emails, but others are safe, so choose sites wisely.
 * See the rating of the game before playing it. Some sites do not provide a rating at all, avoid those kinds of sites, if a game is rated for people above your age then DO NOT play that game.
 * Be sure to have an antivirus installed in your computer/laptop to prevent any harmful files to be downloaded.
 * Learn how to block people from chatting with you if they are irritating you a lot.
 * Do not give away credit card numbers and other private details, unless it is a very trusted site.
 * The gaming account should be strong, so use fake name and a strong password also, use avataar instead of your real picture as the profile picture
 * Do not have much contact with your gaming friends in real life.

**Prevention Tips for Parents, to Protect their Children**

 * Make sure that the device your child uses to game has an installed antivirus installed in it.
 * Ask your child to make a strong account using fake details and a hard-to-guess password.
 * Have a look at the kind of games your child plays.
 * Teach your child how to block people from annoying them.
 * Do not allow your child to talk or video chat with complete strangers, without disguising themselves.
 * Before your child downloads anything, ask him to tell you what it is.
 * Make a proper schedule for you child to play games and see to it that the schedule is followed.
 * Use the parental control function inyour web browser.
 * Make sure that you child understands all the risks their are in unsafe gaming online.
 * Consulting your child, at times we know it gets hard when your children do not want listen to you, instead they tell you how good the game is and probably the you your self feel like playing the game. They also tend not to stay clean if their addicted to games instead they leave their room in a mess which makes you think that their going crazy.As a parent you have full control to make changes in the computer which prevents your child from getting in and doing something bad that you may have to pay for. You can also tell your child that since this computer is only bought for you it doesn't mean that you can do whatever you feel like.

**Works Cited**
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 * "Online Gaming." //Staying Safe Online //. StayingSafeOnline. Web. 4 June 2011. 
 * "The Dangers of Online Gaming." //Spam – Antivirus - Identity Theft - Scams and Fraud: STOP IT //. Web. 04 June 2011. .
 * "InternetSafety101.org: Dangers." //InternetSafety101.org: Home //. Web. 04 June 2011. .