From a wider view, parents need to engage themselves in the internet activities of their children. There are lots of strategies that parents can try on their own in handling this issue. The most essential is for them to learn more about the internet. It might even be better if they learn about it from their children. This activity leads to bonding, particularly with teenagers who are starting to search for “freedom” from parental control. When parents are sincere enough about it, this experience is a good shot to the child’s self esteem.This may take some time, but it will surely build trust. When the right signal comes, parents can shift the topic to talking about internet safety rules. The time may come sooner, or later, depending on the age level of the child. It is clear that parents should know when this could occur because of their experiences with other areas that need parental control. They should take extra care that the trust built between them and their children is neither broken nor compromised.
Parents should be alert to signs of too much indulgence, especially in social networking. When children are already “addicted”, it becomes difficult for them to stop. Younger children could easily get captivated by online games. This is the time for parents to encourage their children to develop self-discipline. It will require one’s consistency and authority to make it work, but after a while, children will learn how to balance online and face-to-face time.
An indispensable part of this parenting is that children will build stronger self confidence and higher self-esteem. To achieve this, parents must keep the lines of communication open between them and their children. There is no better way for parents to protect their children than by seeing how they surf online. To keep themselves updated, they need to preserve the trust that sustains their children’s openness to them.
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INNOGAMES AGAINST RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD
The gaming software Innogames is against responsible parenthood.
Recently, I have been banned from playing an on-line game because I monitor my kid’s use of the internet.
Go figure…
In this day and age, when we constantly hear how cybercrime is propagating right before our fingertips, it is imperative for a parent to monitor what their children do on the internet. However, Innogames’ business practices are geared towards penalizing proper parent supervision.
My two youngest kids and I play an online game called Grepolis, created by Innogames. I started the accounts for them and I monitor their email messages. I have also sent from my children accounts emails to people writing to them to let them know that the account was being monitored by a responsible adult.
My youngest is an 11 year old girl with a minor learning disability. Her teachers have suggested that we do fun activities that involve learning to follow sequential steps. As she was interested on the game, I thought that it was going to be a positive experience for her to play this game. Throughout the months playing, she was in need of assistance during the game. As any good parent would do, I offered my help. However, it seems that it is against Innogames rules for a father to help his little girl.
As a result of my monitoring activities and my help to my daughter, I was banned from playing the game for a brief period of time. However, that ban was turned into a permanent one after talking to a Senior Moderator named “Lord Asriel,” whose robotic responses appeared to be from a tyrannical bureaucrat. I just tried to explained in a very polite and restrained manner, that it was imperative for me to monitor my kids use of the internet and to help them when they need or ask for my help. I have the correspondence exchanged with him to prove this point.
In summary, Innogames’ rules are against parents monitoring their children’s account and even against parents assisting their children when the kids ask for help in some game related activity.
What gives Innogames the right to act with such impunity, carelessness for Internet safely, and the complete disregard for the basic parent/child relationship?
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