Read more from the TKSS PSG blog as two parents' share their experience after the workshop!
Click Here to Read More..
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Parents' Cyber Wellness Workshop @ Tanjong Katong Secondary School
Adapted from TKSS Parents' Support Group Blog
Bringing up well-balanced teenagers is an uphill task, and more so with the presence of internet. It's not simple to guide them to use it wisely when there are always some new platforms, trends, and dangerous pitfalls. TKSS has been tackling this issue by organizing workshops for the students as well as the parents, collaborating with TOUCH Cyber Wellness & Sports. TK parents learned the latest in the workshop on Saturday 23rd January.
Read more from the TKSS PSG blog as two parents' share their experience after the workshop!
Click Here to Read More..
Read more from the TKSS PSG blog as two parents' share their experience after the workshop!
Click Here to Read More..
Monday, January 25, 2010
Family Cyber Wellness Programme @ All Saints Church
TOUCH Cyber Wellness conducted a Family Cyber Wellness Programme for 40 parents and their children last Saturday at All Saints Church. While the parents were being enriched at the Parents’ Cyber Wellness Workshop, their children were having fun at the children’s cyber wellness programme, CRuSHKidz. Thereafter, they came together for a family bonding session over Wii console gaming, where the they wii-ly enjoyed themselves!
Click Here to Read More..
Friday, January 15, 2010
Parents' Hands-on Workshop - Learn to Play Digital Games with Your Teens
What are you waiting for? Join us for this workshop today!
Date: 20 Feb 2010 (Saturday)
Time: 1.30pm - 3.30pm
Cost: $20 per participant / $35 per couple
Venue: SAFRA Game Haven, Carpenter Street
Nearest MRT: Clarke Quay Station
For sign-up or further inquiries, please contact Shem @ cyberwellness@touch.org.sg Click Here to Read More..
Monday, January 11, 2010
Parents' Cyber Wellness Workshop @ CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls' School (Primary)
More than 80 parents of lower primary children studying in CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls' School (Primary) attended the parents' cyber wellness workshop last Tuesday. While many of the children embarked on their exciting new journey into primary school life, the parents' were engaged and enlightened through the cyber wellness conducted by TOUCH Cyber Wellness.
Interesting and concerning questions were raised through the 2-hour workshop, and here are two of them:
"My child is in lower primary and is asking me for permission to sign up for a FaceBook account, especially so when almost all his classmates has an account. Should I let him have his own FaceBook account?"
"Would there be any suitable websites that is suitable for children in terms of good content?"
Q: My child is in lower primary and is asking me for permission to sign up for a FaceBook account, especially so when almost all his classmates has an account. Should I let him have his own FaceBook account?
TOUCH: Legally speaking, FaceBook account users must be above the age of 13 years old. However, it is also true that children today are starting out younger on social networks, especially so under peer influence or pressure. Thus, we would encourage that if parents who wish to allow their children to start up on social networks, they should embark on it TOGETHER with the children.
Whether it is games, social networks or technology, we strongly encourage parents to be prepared to commit time and effort to engage the children together in it. This is so that parents can provide guidance and accountability to their children in terms of Internet content and contacts.
If one is not ready to engage it together, then don't let the children start.
Q: Would there be any suitable websites that is suitable for children in terms of good content?
TOUCH: Again, parental involvement and supervision is important for children once they start out on the Internet. Even if it is good content, but there's always danger that child may get "hooked" in terms of excessive usage.
But having said that, some examples of healthy websites that parents can start off together with their children would be:
a) Totlol is a video website designed specifically for children. It is community moderated. It is constantly growing. It is powered by YouTube. The videos were submitted, screened and rated by parents.
b) FunBrain is an educational website providing games, comics, e-books and materials for kids and teachers.
c) KidSites is a reference site for parents to best kids' websites on the Internet. Click Here to Read More..
Monday, January 4, 2010
Students Learn to deal with Cyber Bullying the Fun Way!!
Bringing the cyber wellness message to hundreds of thousands of youths, this programme plays out common Internet-related dilemmas that youths face every day, challenging them to make good decisions on behalf of the characters, and showing dramatized consequences of their choices.
This latest episode on Cyber Bullying has reached more than 12,000 youths since its launch last August. It was also presented at the National Youth Council (NYC) Youth Research Seminar in September last year.
Parents interested to sign their children up for cyber wellness programmes can visit our website at http://planetcrush.org.sg/ to find out more or contact us at cyberwellness@touch.org.sg Click Here to Read More..
Cyber Bullying - What Should Parents Do?
Many parents react and may get angry before they know what exactly is going on. This may be an added barrier for the child to speak up when they are bullied.
Our counsellor’s advice:
1) Deal with his emotion – Listen First!
Listen to your child and help him share and process his emotions.
2) Deal with the bullying from his perspective
a) Find out what happened.
b) Save evidence.
c) Understand his role in it.
d) Offer rational solution and help him learn to resolve conflicts.
e) Report it if necessary.
Who can you report it to?
1) School Teacher/ Counsellor (if incident involve school mates)
2) Police (if you sense that your child is in danger)
3) Support him through the journey.
Get help if needed!!
If you are not confident of handling it or unsure of what to do/ if your child needs help, speak to our Cyber Wellness Counsellors.
TOUCH Cyber Wellness Counselling: 1800 337 2252 Click Here to Read More..
Parents Unaware of Kids' Net Risk
MANY parents in Singapore and across the globe have little idea of what their children are up to online, a worldwide survey has found.
They do not know whether their children have been a target of cyber-bullying, Internet paedophiles and online fraudsters, or have been exposed to pornography - or how their children are coping with these if they have become victims.
Ask parents and 92 per cent of them will say they have set ground rules for using the Internet. Ask the young ones, on the other hand, and only 66 per cent say these rules exist, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has found.
The ITU, the technology arm of the United Nations, revealed this and other findings in conjunction with World Telecommunications and Information Society Day last Sunday.
The day was marked in Singapore yesterday by about 80 industry professionals at a gathering organised by the Association of Telecommunications Industry of Singapore (Atis).
Other findings by the ITU include:
One in three teenage girls who go online has been harassed in chatrooms, but only 7 per cent of them tell their parents because they do not want to lose their Internet access.
One in five children is being targeted by a sexual predator or paedophile each year.
Three-quarters of children are willing to share information about themselves and their families online in exchange for goods and services, such as contest prizes or downloads, opening themselves to cybercriminals who use the information to steal money or their identities.
The numbers from the survey are not specific to Singapore, which has one of the highest Internet and mobile penetration rates in the world, but these issues are likely to be encountered in the country as well, some industry players say.
Atis has urged parents to play a larger role in teaching their children to stay safe while online.
Its president, Mr John Shaznell, said some parents were 'thinking like dinosaurs' in their detachment from the Internet and needed to be educated.
'We parents have put so much faith and trust in schools, but we don't know what our own kids are doing,' he said.
Senior social worker Vivienne Ng said some parents contributed to the problem by treating the computer as a babysitter.
'They believe that it's better their child is at home and online rather than outside mixing with bad company. But online, you're exposed to anything and everything and everyone,' said the staff member of Hougang Sheng Hong Family Service Centre.
She said she had come across seven-year-olds visiting porn sites. The words 'sex' and 'porn' are easy to spell, she said, and a search engine like Google is all a child needs to enter that world. Some even swop stories about their online findings with their friends at school, she added.
Ms Ng is starting a support group for parents whose children are glued to their computers.
Mr Eugene Seow, who chairs the National Internet and New Media Advisory Committee, said what many people did not realise was that content seen online could affect a child's values and behaviour.
The executive director of Touch Community Services, a promoter of cyberwellness, urged parents to get themselves educated on cyber-wellness before their children are exposed to the Internet.
Parents need to 'get there first', he said, so they can pass on the right values instead of letting their children absorb it on their own.
Separately yesterday, the ITU launched worldwide a draft document containing recommendations for parents, telcos, Internet operators and governments. The Child Online Protection initiative is open for feedback from the public between now and the end of next month. Its suggestions include the setting up of a national sex-offender database and denying offenders access to websites popular with children.
Commentary by TOUCH Cyber Welllness
Cyber Bullying may be more common than you think.
33% of Secondary 2 children surveyed by TOUCH in 2008 indicated that they have been cyber-bullied in some ways.
Some children remain silent when they are bullied on cyberspace because they do not know what to do. Some may not want to speak up especially if they know the bully. This may be worse because parents are unaware and cannot intervene.
How can parents help their child?
- Speak to your child regularly to find out how he is doing on the Internet.
- Set rules and guidelines on who your child can “talk to” on the Internet just as you would in real life.
- Place the computer in an open area of your home so that you can observe your child.
- Get to know your child’s friends and Internet friends – be friendly and approachable so that the channel of communication with them is kept open.
- Get help if you feel your child is cyber-bullied and you do not know what to do. (Parents can call our TOUCH Cyber Wellness Counselling Line at 1800 337 2252.)
- Make a police report if you feel that your child is in danger, or your child is fearful.
Parents' Resource: Welcome to Our World
MOST of the debate over the video games is shrill.
"Video games are the blackest evil," goes one (typically, non-gamer) camp.
"No, they are the best thing since sliced bread," goes the other typically, the can't get enough games camp).
Well, the jury is still out.
Nonetheless, the impact of video games is undeniably growing, both here in Singapore and overseas. Many parents, especially those who don't play games themselves, remain unsure of how to deal with their kids' hobby.
National Institute of Education professor — and World of Warcraft (WoW) raider — Dr Angeline Khoo's new book, Welcome to Our World, is timely in that regard.
Co-authored with a friend she met via the game, Mr Matthew Hall, the book provides a quick primer into the world inhabited by the people behind the orcs and elves in the massively multiplayer online role playing games like Maple Story and WoW, which are played by hundreds of thousands of Singapore youth.
The 150-page volume jumps straight into the usual concerns parents have — addiction and violence — and answers them in a straightforward, easy-to-understand manner, sans the jargon that dot
academic journals on the topic.
Can slaying demons 24/7 turn my placid kid into a serial killer?
No way, not unless there are other aggravating factors.
It also helps modern parents, especially those who don't play video games, understand why their kids cannot get enough of games, no matter how many hours they spend on it daily.
It does come with its share of frightening, sordid tales of gamers so hooked they were no longer functioning people, and provides a helpful checklist of signs to watch out for.
The current research on this issue is also laid out for readers clearly, and more importantly, advice on how to handle this.
Tip: Contrary to what some other professionals, usually non-gamers, advise in situations like this, forcing a gaming addict to go cold turkey is the wrong approach to the problem, and could aggravate the situation
instead.
If nothing else, this is one key take-away from the book.
There is plenty of other valuable information and advice, like the link between games and violence, and how to adapt your parenting styles when your child starts gaming.
Beyond these push-button issues, the book also devotes a significant section to the good points of games – developing problem-solving skills, imagination, how to cooperate with others, delayed gratification, and
other important life skills.
A copy of Welcome to Our World, published by McGraw Hill, was given to The Straits Times for review purposes.
The Straits Times technology correspondent Chua Hian Hou has been playing online games since he discovered text-based multiuser dungeons, the predecessor of games like WoW, in the 90s. He greatly misses his alter-ego, a Dwarven Templar in the game EverQuest 2, after real-life got in the way of his online gaming. Click Here to Read More..
Singaporean Youths Stuck on Video Games
Singaporean youths are playing 27 hours of computer games/week.
SINGAPORE students spend 27 hours a week playing video games like Maple Story and World of Warcraft. The statistic, uncovered by an ongoing National Institute of Education (NIE) study, is raising concern over the impact of such games, and the extent of gaming addiction here.
The three-year study, the biggest of its kind in Singapore, is looking at more than 3,000 primary and secondary school students' gaming habits, and will be finished at the end of the year.
NIE declined to reveal more about it pending an analysis of the results. One thing is clear though: Singapore youth really like video games. Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck
Yew, who revealed the 27-hour statistic at a Singapore Press Club event last month, said he was 'quite surprised and a little bit shocked' that the figure was so high.
He may have grounds for concern: American youths spend just 13 hours a week dragon-slaying, but a significant number are feeling the harmful effects of playing too much.
In a study of 1,200 American children and teens, aged eight to 18, published in the prestigious Psychological Science journal, 8.5per cent of those who played games were found to show signs of 'pathological gaming', which means that gamers play so much that the hobby hurts their academic performances and relationships.
For years now, experts have been warning of the problem, which has seen severe cases needing treatment at mental institutions to wean them off their fix. Statistics, though, are only now beginning to emerge.
Figures from other countries are not readily available, although concern about the impact of video games has risen alongside their popularity. The American study noted that it was also possible that poor students, or those with social problems, play a lot to get away from their real life issues.
Confirming some stereotypes, pathological gamers also tend to be male and suffer from health problems like back and wrist injuries. The study's author, Iowa State University professor Douglas Gentile, is
also involved with the NIE project. 'Kids play so much because they find games fun and rewarding,' he said.
The statistics resonate with counsellors and gamers. According to Touch Cyber Wellness and Sports manager Poh Yeang Cherng, 27 hours a week or more is not uncommon among the pathological gamers he counsels. Some heavily addicted gamers spend far more time than that. Many refuse to acknowledge that they have a problem.
For World of Warcraft fan Lawrence Lee, 16, playing for four hours a day 'is nothing'.
During a six-month period last year, Lawrence played for six hours on weekdays and 'the whole weekend, from Friday until Sunday night'.
'I slept and studied only when my parents forced me to,' he said. 'I even skipped brushing my teeth in the morning occasionally...It is the novelty, like getting to know a new girlfriend. You want to spend every minute with her.'
The Government is concerned about cyber-wellness issues and has formed an inter-ministry committee to look into ways to deal with them.
Trying to regulate how young people use the Internet will not work, said Rear-Admiral (NS) Lui, but some possible fixes include educating gamers on how to manage their time, and parental supervision. Click Here to Read More..
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Game Review: World Of Warcraft
Platform: Windows (Vista/XP/2K/ME/98)
Singapore Publisher: AsiaSoft Online Pte Ltd
Game Genre: Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Game (MMORPG)
Pricing: US$15 per month (credit card), S$47.50 (2-mth prepaid card)
Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) Rating: Teen
Media Development Agency (MDA) Rating: Not Rated
INTRODUCTION
World of Warcraft (WoW) is arguably the most well known online game in gaming circles today. The original game was launched in 2004 and two expansion sets, The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, have been added since then. The expansion sets introduced additional game content and features, prolonging the life of this five year old game. It is not uncommon for players to devote hundreds of hours every month living their virtual characters in this award-winning Warcraft universe, interacting with thousands from all over the globe.
GENERAL GAMEPLAY
Players start by creating a level 1 game character. As the character increases in level (through gaining "experience"), he obtains more skills and becomes more powerful. Every game character belongs to one of two factions in the game รข€“ Alliance or Horde. Each game character would also have a race (eg, dwarf, human, elf) and a class (eg, paladin, mage, druid).
WoW has essentially two modes of gameplay, Player versus Environment (PvE) and Player versus Player (PvP).
PvE focuses on killing computer-controlled monsters or super monsters ("bosses") and clearing dungeons or instances (which are places filled with monsters) either by playing alone or together with other players in a party. For monsters and dungeons of lower difficulty, playing alone or with a small party is sufficient. However, once you reach the max level, which is as of now level 80, you would need a guild (an organized group with a common identity) or find a big group of other players in order to go for more valuable treasure. The size of the parties would depend on the type of dungeons that are being challenged and it can consist of 10, 25 or 40 players. On a side note, in order to accommodate the real-life schedule of members that make up the raids (which is the term for an expedition to conquer a dungeon), most guilds fix their raid timings to be between 6pm-1am.
PvP, as its name suggest, involves challenging and killing other players. There are three modes of PvP, known in the game as World PvP, Battlegrounds and Arenas. World PvP happens when players kill each other in the game world. Battlegrounds take the form of a mini-game which can involve up to 80 players. Each team is given an objective to accomplish, such as to capture the opponent's flag or hold a particular location against the other team. The Arena is the most competitive form of PvP as the game developers are keen to promote this as a form of competitive sport. Forming teams of 2, 3 or 5, the best Arena teams can obtain significant in-game rewards and even worldwide acclaim. The game developers organize tournaments which showcase the skills of professional Arena teams and offer prizes up to USD50,000.
For more game reviews, log on to http://www.planetcrush.org/resources/gamereviews/index.htm Click Here to Read More..
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