Kids playing computer games may be blackmailed, MOI warns

DOHA: The Criminal Investigation Department at the Ministry of Interior has advised parents to keep an eye on their children while they are playing online or video games as leaving children unattended might expose them to cyber criminals.

Capt. Engineer Mudawi Saeed Al Qahtani, Head of the Economic and Electronic Crimes Section at the Criminal Investigation Department said that innocent children may reveal personal and sensitive information unknowingly to cyber criminals which may put their life to danger.

“The problem of the new e-games or computer games is that these games ask many personal information. After accessing personal information, anonymous groups and persons blackmail children by threatening them. This may force a child to commit a crime,” Al Qahtani said.

The modes of cyber crimes are constantly changing with the advancement of technology and cyber-criminals are continuously changing their modus operandi.

He also added, while speaking to Qatar TV, that “The e-crimes against children is among the new crimes, and the most of the countries suffering from these crimes are of East Asia, Europe and America. In Qatar, because of our tradition and religion, parents monitor their children which helped in very low impact of such crime, but now e-crimes against children is spreading in the country.

Capt. Al Qahtani explained that “ according to laws, age of children is 16 years and below that age.

Regarding a question about the precautionary measures, he said: “the Interpol sends a the list of games which are classified as danger to the members countries and countries take precautionary measures in this regard.”

“For example, in Qatar, the Ministry of Transport and Communications is monitoring the sites and conducts preventive procedures and bans some sites,” Capt. Al Qahtani said.

Al Qahtani has advised that instead of stopping the children from playing online games, parents should monitor them and deal with them in polite way. Parents should also allocate a specific time for the use of electronic devices and video games.

For his part, Mohamed Al Anzi, Psychological consultant said that the parents have a crucial role in monitoring their children from these games. “Children must be educated about the dangers of the games and should be explained about that dangers before as it will stop them from committing any mistakes”.

There are two kinds of parents. The first set of parents offer what the children demand and do not monitor them. They give excuse that they are busy to keep an eye on their children. The second type of parents meet the demand of their children but always monitor children and this very important.