Cybercrime grips kids
Monday - October 22, 2018 10:21 am ,
Category : WTN SPECIAL
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(WTN) Cybercrime is not new to us and thousands of people every year are duped by cybercriminals. But a new trend that is picking force in the involvement of young children in the trap. It is being seen off late that school kids in large numbers are being targeted and duped of large sums of money, which they are stealing from their home through credit or debit cards of their parents or savings accounts in their name. Online gaming is an addiction for children and cybercriminals use this platform to influence and lure them into the trap that leads to dishonest dealings and transactions. Children often hide such invitations to pay up from their parents and try to look out for any source of money that could be paid to get access to higher levels of the game they are into.
It is said that in the initial stages the games come for free. Once a youngster gets hooked to it and scales newer levels, he is suddenly stuck at one point where he is asked to pay up certain amount to enter the higher challenges. Most of these foreign born games are expensive and as the levels rise, the cost to access and scale them goes higher. Most Indian kids are unable to pay so exorbitantly. Here the cybercriminals, through their hacked routes, offer the kids easy break-ins by selling them certain key words or codes. These keys cost less than half or even lesser than the ones sold by the original gaming companies. Thus, it saves a lot of money for the kids, even as they get easy access to the games. But even this means illegal amount transfers and nefarious dealings which the boys get into.
They get so addicted that negation or denial or stopping by parents or guardians is ignored or greeted with protests and fights. Even if parents don’t allow them the money, they try to dupe others or take loans from friends or relatives to sustain the gaming regime. The onus falls largely on parents to incept early on and engage their kids in better pursuit so that they don’t get into gaming in the first place. Even if they are into it, the task is to wean them away as early as possible and spend quality parental time with them.
Most kids who get obsessed with gaming are form homes where parents get neglectful or are too busy with their own jobs to give time to the psychological needs of their growing children. In homes where parents are more attentive and involved in the affairs of their kids, have less of this problem. Teachers and other elders who have an influence in the child’s life must also discourage them from gaming, which is an intellectually debilitating exercise in any case, and engage and involve them in more creative tasks or physical exercises which keep the mind healthy. Unless caregivers and guardians are conscious of this evil and its effect on a child’s life and unless they take up urgent steps to keep kids away from these engagements and make them realise the value of life beyond brainless gaming, we will be in for a severe crisis in the days to come.
