6 Gaming Sites You Should Worry About
By Lisa Shaw – April 5, 2012
Learn How Kids Embrace, Consume and Socialize Using Technology
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Long gone are the days when gaming referred to Candy Land or Battleship played at the dining room table. Parents – say hello to gaming sites where avatars swear like drunken sailors and the graphics make your cheeks turn red. Online gaming is everywhere, and kids seem to find the fastest route to the most popular sites. Unfortunately, popularity in the gaming world is not often based on educational, social, and moral values. If you have kids, pay attention to some of these gaming sites … they make Battleship look like a friendly match of table-tennis.
Gaming Sites You Should Worry About with Your Kids
CrazyMonkeyGames.com
This gaming site is geared for kids ages 13+, but parents still need to pay attention. While there isn’t really a lot of swearing or sexual content, the games here are often violent. There is a lot of blood, gory graphics, plus violent and deviant behaviors.
SecondLife.com
Even though there are claims to have PG-rated areas, most of the themes and conversations found in this virtual world are adult in nature. Avatars communicate by text or voice, and your child might just virtually stumble into his first brothel or pornography store.
Habbo.com
There really is little point and no value in this avatar world. The language is foul at best and the situations and connotations are sexist. The chats are mindless, the comments mean, and your teen might be exposed to his or her first “Sexy Singles Club.”
FormSpring.me
If you think of cyberbullying, remember this gaming name. There are no language filters and some reports link this site to teen suicides because of rampant bullying. Drug and alcohol references are plentiful, and your teen might see more skin than clothing.
Chatroulette.com
This isn’t really a game, but teens apparently consider it to be. Users connect with a webcam and are randomly paired with someone else in the world who also is waiting in front of the webcam. You click “Next” until you find someone with whom you want to chat. The roulette part of the game is you never know who you will get, but chances are they will be requesting intimate favors, wearing little clothing, or behaving inappropriately in general.
TeenSpot.com
It might sound like the place built just for teens, but if it were a movie it would be rated R or above. The chat rooms are full of conversations about sex, drinking, and drugs, and the games section offers teens a host of violent games to play.
These are just a few examples of the gaming sites where kids like to experiment, meet virtual friends, and play games. These websites aren’t the only questionable online gaming your child might face, however. Personal and home gaming technology can now connect via the Internet to public gaming communities where chats and more take place. The following games seem to be popular among teens, but are often filled with bloody violence and sexual innuendo. Add to that the danger of connecting online to strangers to play enhanced versions and your child might be getting more than you bargained for.
The above games come in various versions and work on various systems. If your child has a gaming system, make sure you understand how the Internet functions work and how your child might be using them.
And to think the biggest gaming controversy used to be over who would be the Monopoly banker!
AUTHOR OVERVIEW
What do five kids ranging in age from kindergarten to high school, a Harvard MBA and years of protecting kids online get you? It gets you Lisa Shaw, COO of her very busy household, and a Senior Director at SpectorSoft, the number one leader in monitoring and protecting your kids online. She's an expert on the technology and trends that you need to arm yourself with to be the best parent you can be in today’s digital world.
Tags: avatar, games with bad language, online gaming, violent video games