Did Online Gaming Kill the NTU Student?

The recent report about the NTU student who has stabbed his professor and then jumped to his death has invited a lot of attention from parents. Why? Because it was reported that he is an avid and skilled computer gamer... Today, a lot of parents are able to associate themselves with the sad news...

I heard an interview on radio last week that motivated me to write this. The interviewee, a mother, was really concerned about her son indulging in online gaming. According to her, he gets violent whenever he is interrupted while gaming. As a result of his addiction, he gets very little sleep, causing him to neglect school. His school work deteriorated...

I can only think of two ways to resolve such issue...

1. Have an open communication with them. Share with them that their profile is public forever, and online strangers could be out there trying to steal their information. Show them example and share with the the concept of Underground Digital Economy.

2. Use technology to restrict access (although this is not my preferred option). At this point, I believe that Trend Micro Internet Security has the most intuitive Parental Control features. There are 3 product features that I like, namely,

a. URL filtering - there are more than 20 categories to select from. Meaning, if the category on online gaming is selected, the online gaming sites would be blocked

b. Internet restriction by time - A very easy-to-use grid table to select the time of the day where the internet will be restricted. With this, the child can still use the computer to do his school work and you don't have to worry about him surfing undesirable websites when you are away or at work

c. Data protection by encrypting confidential information that you have defined. E.g. if you state that the credit number is confidential, this information is masked even if the child is tricked into revealing the information online

 

Screenshots of Advanced Parental Controls feature

 

Block websites by category	Limited Internet access by   time of day, day of week	Protect sensitive information   against accidental leakage

 

Remember, technology can only do so much...  

Click here to try out Parental Control feature!