ABA Family Legal Guide

Computer Law

Child Protection and the Internet

As for gambling, don't those websites check to make sure the gambler is of age?

Gambling websites are open twenty-four hours per day every day. Federal Trade Commission visits to more than one hundred gambling websites recently concluded that children could easily access them. Agency staff said that about 20 percent of the sites displayed no warning that underage gambling is illegal nationwide. On many other sites, the warnings were hard to find, the FTC said. In addition, the sites had no effective mechanism to block children from entering, the agency added.

To access these sites, often the only thing a child needs is a credit or debit card. Therefore, parents and caregivers trying to prevent their children from accessing these sites should sharply restrict their access to these cards. Parents should also warn their children about the hazards of gambling, including the fact that the odds are always with the house (or, in this case, the website) and they can lose their money, become addicted, and mess up their credit rating.