I am not sure what to call this, but my 14 year old son is allowed to play a game called starcraft, its online game. He was in the main lounge, and another player was talking to him. The player said, hey click on my URL, it shows you new strategys you can use. My son did not did not trust him, the player said its alright, and a few other players joined in and tried to persuade my son on clicking on the URL the other player posted.
It was actually a link to a picture called TUBGIRL, an extremely graphic disgusting picture, and when he clicked on it, it kept popping up until he had to restart the computer. The other players were laughing non stop at him.
How do I prevent this from happening again to my son? He almost started crying and felt very scared and sick.
2007-09-23 01:42:43 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pregnancy & Parenting ➔ Parenting
Ban Starcraft website immediately forever!
2007-09-23 01:50:35 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
That is an awful. If these people are strangers over the net, i would dismiss bullying, the dangers of online gaming is the fact you do not know anyone and who they actually are. Providing he does not go to meet them or try and 'get to know them' it should not do any BIG harm. You could take comfort in the fact they do not know your son, so it is nothing personal and not an attack at him. They are most likely insecure children having a laugh.
Its horrible though that this happened to your son, the one place to relax and have a little fun without judgement and being picked on.
To prevent this you could find other games then this to play, but if he enjoys it then maybe avoid certain players, simply play the game, he could tell them where to go, since they are strangers and far away, you could get away with sticking up for yourself and not get any stick too close to home. Some games do have admins or people tending to them, if this does you could report them.
I hope this will not happen again to your son, maybe he could take up a hobby like self defence, so if he is bullied he will feel secure in himself and not a victim, it would also be a great way to meet other people who are not as childish as those kids and gain some confidence.
i hope this was of some help
x x x x x x x
2007-09-23 02:03:28 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
When your son is on starcraft online he may change to another channel with others players most likely more friendly than the ones your son encounter. Tell to ignore all url that are send to him they are most likely some source of computer prank or virus. Your son is not being bullied he just was at the wrong place the wrong time,however; i'm assuming he is not being harass by the same players. If he is being harassed tell him to create another account. There is not much you can do to prevent this from happening again unless you tell your son to ignore alot of the players.
2007-09-23 01:56:16 · answer #3 · answered by ZChen 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
On the one hand, its life. He shouldnt be too shielded against it.
On the other hand, he should learn that there are ways to handle it.
Ive been a systems admin for internet systems since internet became named internet. My first question to parents is "how would you handle it in the real world?". Believe me that the people running those systems dont want it getting that way any more than you do. Report it. Give the login names of the kids, a copy of the conversation, and send it to the abuse address for that site. The kids that did the bullying will get the lesson they need in their actions having results that can be tracked back to them.
You might get a form letter back saying some generic legalese about not-responsible but dont be discouraged. The people who actually RUN the system do see those and are just as likely to be bugged by it as you are. Jut becuase they have to send an answer saying they dont HAVE to do anything that doesnt mean that they cant if they want to. And even on the most uncaring of sites, multiple complaints about a user tend to get them booted and blocked.
ALSO dont just wave this off. Its even more important that YOUR child learn that such actions have consequences. I have very often heard some sort of story from offenders "well it happened to me and no one did anything to them".
2007-09-23 08:00:59 · answer #4 · answered by Gandalf Parker 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The same advice for adults is good for kids. Tell your son to never click on links given to him by people he doesn't know. It's possible that your computer is now infected so you're going to have to buy some anti-spyware. Just Google the term and you will find something. I use Spysweeper by Webroot which seems to work well. Symantec Anti-virus works pretty well too and can intercept Trojan type virus'.
To keep this from happening again the answer for your son is to protect his identity and don't follow links by strangers. If it's really a problem and he feels bullied you can offer to stand in for him when it is happening. You can judge the situation better.
The first thing to do is clean up your computer. Good Luck.
2007-09-23 01:58:43 · answer #5 · answered by IveBeenThere 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
While I agree tubgirl is gross.. I have to say that if your 14 year old son is crying he shouldn't be exposed to mature games like starcraft anyway.
He should either NOT chat with anyone on that site or find something more age appropriate.
2007-09-23 01:55:33 · answer #6 · answered by iampatsajak 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you can report this to the online game staff. right them a message through the website costumer support bit. I am a moderator on asnother online game n i ban ppl for breaking rules every week. also he can just add player to his online bloack list! dont fight back because your account will be banned. i have played starcraft and im 14 so hes the right age to play it.
2007-09-23 02:02:42 · answer #7 · answered by noob hustler 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ah...I was hit with that one, except it was the video. I don't know that I'd really call it bullying - just stupidity. If people start bothering him on there again, tell him to go to another lounge or to turn it off for a bit.
2007-09-23 01:51:14 · answer #8 · answered by xxunloved_little_angelxx 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
great lesson to learn here, online and in real life. your son has great instincts and they should be acknowledged and honored. you can't prevent this from happening again. at 14 you should be coaching him on how he can prevent it from happening again. this is a learning experience, he knows that when he doesn't trust his instincts things may happen that make him cry and feel sick.
talk about it, acknowledge it as a lesson learned, and move on. don't make a bigger deal out of it than it is.
2007-09-23 01:53:44 · answer #9 · answered by ProudM 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Tell him to quit it!
But tell him to sign up for Teen Second Life!
Give him a hug!
Teen second Life is totally safe!
2007-09-23 03:14:40 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋