Online gaming, almost every child has played is playing or will play on an online game in his or her life.  This is a relatively new trend in the grand scheme of things as game have only been played for a short time. But is it health for your child and is it actually a thing you should be letting your child on?

There are many online games out there from the small games such as mercenarylords.co.uk to the huge games that are made for a profit like runescape.com and worldofwarcraft, but do you actually know who you are talking to?  Paedophiles, murderers and rapists are all out there searching the web, playing on games hoping to find a victim. 

Should this worry you though, no of course not you should be quite safe actually as long as you are only chatting to people you know or you are not disclosing any of your personal information such as address phone number or even just your full name and where you live. These people can be persistent yet still seem as if they are your friend, just be wary.

You should be worried however by the growing number of people that become addicted to online games and are actually suffering severe health problems from gaming. Addiction to these games is very easy and you will probably not even know you are getting addicted until too late.  Cut back on the hours you play these games and don’t go without eating or drinking for a long period of hours like someone from China who actually died from exhaustion.  Just be sensible, Wikipedia describes Video Game addiction as excessive or  compulsive use of computer and video games that interferes with daily life. Instances have been reported in which users play compulsively, isolating themselves from, or from other forms of, social contact and focusing almost entirely on in-game achievements rather than broader life events

Take care of yourself, play and have fun but be cautious of who you are actually speaking to and don’t get addicted. Be sensible.