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Many parents are concerned that their children are able to access online gambling sites when they are underage. There are a number of website blocking software options that are available to block gambling sites, as well as other potentially harmful sites.
The Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation has developed new software, BetStopper, which has been designed specifically to block gambling websites from underage children. The software has been tested by 250 families who found it to be very effective. A spokesperson from the corporation, Marie Mullaly, explained that the software has a high success rate in blocking the sites. She noted that "It has a heightened or enhanced level of intelligence that allows it to have a 98 per cent rate of blocking sites." The software searches both the URLs and the website content in order to assess whether it should be blocked or not. The software blocks both gambling sites that work with real money, and those that are free, since the free sites allow children to become accustomed to Internet gambling, teaching them all they need to know in order to gamble with real money. Statistics show that adolescent males have a high rate of gambling activity. About one fifth of eighteen-year-old males admitted that they had already gambled in online casinos, when responding to a survey. Parents can use BetStopper, and other similar software, in order to protect their children from online gambling, until they are old enough to make informed decisions of how they should spend their money and their leisure time. |
