Saturday, March 10, 2012

Online Kids Games and Safety.



If your kids are anything like mine, they are crazy about playing online kids games. For Tater, he is still pretty young so he mostly wants to play things like PBS Kids and Nick.com and stuff, so I am pretty confident, for the most part, that he is safe. 

I recently found a great article for reminding us all of how to keep our kids safe while playing online games, and about safety of gamers in general. Here are a few really important points to remember, both about kids online games and gamer safety in general. 

  • When downloading free kids games or applications, watch for small tick boxes (check boxes) that need to be deselected in order to prevent additional spyware files being downloaded to your PC.
  • Supervise your kids when they are playing online games that have chat facilities. Kids can be duped into downloading files from people they believe to be friendly gamers.
  • Don’t ever give out personal details during an online conversation, and educate your kids to do the same. Even simply supplying your full name can be enough for scammers to piece together other information and infect your PC with online spyware.
  • Before installing new games, whether downloaded or bought in a retail store, check the requirements. Some games require an internet connection to check the validity of the game, but will also share your e-mail address with a third party unless to explicitly deny this option. Take your time installing games and carefully read all the pop up dialogues to avoid online spyware from game installations.
  • Don’t become complacent about installing games, software, or chatting online. Even reputable websites like Yahoo Games, MSN Games, or Xbox Live carry risks as they all allow text chatting with other gamers. Never divulge information to or download files from other gamers you do not personally know.

I really had no idea that KIDS games would be a such a source of danger on the internet! These are all really important points to remember and I hope that you guys will keep them in mind as well! 


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