Don’t live your lives on the Internet — Be careful (2)
Last week, the first part of this article was published here. Today, we bring you the concluding part.
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One thing which lures young people to browse the Internet is online games. Most of them go online with the excuse of researching on their homework but end up playing games for hours on end.
Alex Danso is an Internet cafe operator at Kaneshie, Accra. He says after 3 p.m. every day pupils and students troop to his cafe to play online games.
He says when they walk in they tell him they are going to research on their homework but he often finds them playing games.
“I have had to drive some of them away on a number of occasions when I realise they are playing games and making so much noise,” he said.
Ester Victoria, a 13-year-old Form Two student at Achimota in Accra, says she only plays educative games online and spends about one or two hours each day online with permission from her mother.
The Internet is a great source of fun and entertainment which allows you to get lost in the world of video games, but while having fun online, have these tips to guide you.
• Games can sometimes absorb you and you will do anything to win or get to the next level. The risk is that you might play for hours without realising precious time is being lost.
It is also possible that you may neglect your schoolwork, friends and all the other fun activities while you get absorbed in the games.
• Remember, it is possible to become addicted to online games and so limit the time you spend on them and remember it’s only a game.
• You should never share personal details to enjoy a game.
• Remember that looking at the computer, phone or tablet screen for a long time can affect your eyesight.
Many online games allow you to communicate with other players and some of the most fun games even require you to work together in order to achieve a victory or win points. In all this never give away too much personal information and avoid mentioning private data such as your phone number, address or full name.
Internet fraud
One serious thing most young users of the Internet do is to engage in fraudulent activities. You know ‘Sakawa’, as most people call it. This is a serious crime which gets a lot of young people arrested when they are caught.
Ben (not his real name) is 18 years and says he was introduced to Internet fraud when he was only 15 by some of his older friends. He said usually they use false identities and tricks to get people abroad to send them money and other items.
“I realised this behaviour was not good and so I stopped, but some of my friends continue to play tricks on people, even after they have acquired a lot of things from the people abroad. Unfortunately, some of my friends were arrested when they were going to collect the money which had been sent to them by those they had defrauded.
“When their victims realised that they were being defrauded, they intentionally sent sums of money to my friends and arranged with the banks to arrest them when they came for the money. That is how they were arrested by the police.” Frank said.
Frank says from the experiences he had while defrauding people through the internet, he has realise that it is not right to do that to innocent people because it is not a good start in life.