A non-profit e-safety organization called Internet Matters reminds parents to safeguard their children when it comes to playing games online, as recent online gaming study shows that kids spend an average of three hours in a day. That is expected to rise if online gaming couldn’t be controlled at an early stage.
This numbers pose imminent dangers that children face while playing online games. The group launched a new TV ad campaign backed by Disney via Disney Junior, Disney Channel and Disney XD, to mitigate this statistic.
One classic example of dangers in online gaming is the smartphone gaming app Clash of Clans, when a 9-year old boy was groomed by an Internet predator over chat. Research by the organization showed that one third of primary school-aged pupils have communicated with people they do not know while gaming, and 9% of primary and 11% of secondary school children have communicated with people who they didn’t know via Clash of Clans.
Other issues that could affect the children in the absence of parental supervision to online gaming are inappropriate content, cyber bullying, online grooming, sexting, online reputation, self-harm, online pornography and radicalization.
