As schools and colleges across the country break up for the summer holidays, teachers have urged parents to utilise the resources available to them on YGAM’s new ‘Parent Hub’.
With some COVID19 lockdown measures still in place, children are expected to spend a large amount of the holidays indoors and therefore potentially online. Lockdown resulted in a 60% increase in games sales with reports of some children spending up to 12 hours in front of a screen.
YGAM has launched their new ‘Parent Hub’ website to provide families with resources, information and activities to help build digital resilience and safeguard their children from gaming and gambling-related harms.
Alex Connock, a teacher at Kingsgate Primary School in London said: “Having spoken to parents throughout lockdown, gaming has been an invaluable resource for their children but also to themselves whilst working from home and trying to balance everything, however, many are concerned about what the effects of this may be now things are starting to return to normal.”
“Many have also spoken about their lack of understanding of what their children are playing and feel unsure of where to start when trying to protect their children. The YGAM parents hub is going to be a vital source of information, support, and advice for many parents, and will greatly help them support their children transition back to normal and stay safe”.
Secondary school teacher Bethany Veness said: “I regularly hear my students talking about the latest games they are all playing. They spend a lot of their free time gaming online and it clearly forms a significant part of their social life. This magnificent new website will help parents understand the wide variety of games their kids could be playing and help them decide if they are appropriate”.
Mr Jay Smith, Senior Tutor and Deputy Safeguard Lead at The Henley College welcomed the launch of the ‘Parent Hub’ commenting: “I had the pleasure of taking part in the YGAM course and it was really informative. It highlighted to me the impact gambling is having on young people and how they could well become desensitised to the negative consequences. These outstanding resources are so important, so I encourage all parents to make the most of this website, this summer especially”.
Amanda Atkinson, Head of Parental Engagement at YGAM said: “The summer holidays can be stressful time for parents so we want to do all we can to support families to ensure children are playing safely online. Through our educational resources, we are focused on providing crucial information to parents so they can identify changes in behaviours and understand the effects that gambling and gaming may have on mental and financial wellbeing.”
The charity has teamed up with researchers from Newcastle and Loughborough Universities to help parents and carers understand why and control how their children buy items like loot boxes. The Gambling Health Alliance (GHA), led by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), welcomed YGAMs new ‘Parent Hub’ website labelling such types of resources as ‘vitally important’ for parents. Parents can access the advice at www.parents.ygam.org
