Here are some things that you as a parent should know about smart online gaming.
Number One:
As a parent, one of the most important things that you are going to need to realize is that video games have actually changed. Basically what this means is that once upon a time video games were something that children played by themselves or with a friend over to visit. But just recently things have changed yet again and this is because of online gaming. Basically what has now happened is that with the help of a headset and a microphone children are able to play games and chat with people from anywhere in the world in real time.
Number Two:
As a parent you also need to know that currently most people who are playing these kinds of online games are serious gamers. What this means is that these people are actually logging on to the game to actually play the game, the last thing that they are interested in is talking to children or obtaining information from your children. But unfortunately because of how easy it is for children to access these online games, as time goes on more predators and hackers are going to be logging on to these same games in an attempt to steal information or harass and abuse your children.
Number Three:
Even though the Internet might seem like a different world we need to teach our children that it isn’t really a separate life and that what we do online has consequences to what happens in our lives. So what we want to teach our children is that we treat everybody online they way we want to be treated. Basically we want to remember that behind the computer screen there is an actual person and not a robot and that if we are not careful we can hurt their feelings or cause even bigger problems.
Number Four:
Something else that parents need to know about online gaming is that there is a different set of rules for the Internet that your children are going to need to follow. Basically what this means is that even though they have rules they need to follow when it comes to the house and using the computer to play video games they are also going to need to learn the rules of the website that they are using and make sure they follow those rules as well.
Number Five:
The next thing that you need to do is to make sure that your child is ready for online gaming and the best way to do this is to make sure they understand the dangers of talking to people online and the fact that giving out information is never a good idea because even a phone number can lead to finding out more information. You want your child to be knowledgeable about this because even if they are not doing online gaming at home you never know what happens at their friend’s house.
Number Six:
Something else that you can do is to teach your child about how to deal with people who are harassing them. Basically what you are going to want to do is to teach your child to report them to the administration and to block and ignore those people while playing online games. Many times these people are looking for a response and if you ignore them they will soon go away to somebody else. But you also need to report them to the administration so they can be banned if they are breaking the terms of use and conditions agreement.
