This Is How Social Media Casino Ads Are Destroying Kids’ Lives!

[tabas]

The last time I checked, gambling has less influence on kids while growing up compared to other dirty things we see on social media. If they gamble as kids, it is mostly for fun because they do not have much to do with money, at least not yet at that age. There are other concerns we should be more worried about on social media than gambling. Kids will always choose to gamble even if they are caught and stopped. They will hide to have that satisfaction.

I think those kids that are exposed with the internet have a lot of things to do if ever they've gambled out of nowhere and then have won their bets. They can purchase those games that they like to have and as well as what's being sold inside that game like the skins and characters that they like. In the minds of these kids, they think that's okay and a good way to earn more money so that they can buy whatever they like. But that's a normal innocent mind that they have. Social media and the kids that are exposed in it are likely to get curious with gambling ads if it's a visual ad and tells the audience to play a game with them.

[PrivacyG]

Children are too spoiled, lack too much education and care from the parents and it is showing a lot.  It is not only a responsibility of the parent to educate them but this would be avoided if the children did not have THAT much Money in the first place.  How do they create a Casino account, who gives them the Money to become addicted.  A lot of the children I see are wearing clothes worth more than I would have been able to save in an entire year at their age.  If you do not educate your child then do not expect the Internet to do it for you and if you do expect the Internet to do it then do not cry when the Internet becomes heavily censored 'to protect' your child.

[moneystery]

You can't expect platforms to protect children from gambling ads. From what I know, popular social media platforms have implemented various measures to reduce the impact of gambling on children. However, they can't completely protect children because gambling ads are often disguised as entertainment content, game promotions, or other content.
It's your job as a parent to regulate your child's device usage and ensure they don't access apps that aren't appropriate for their age. You should ensure your child doesn't access apps beyond their age-- there are parental control features on devices these days that you can use to control what they can see and do on their devices. This way, you can reduce your child's potential exposure to gambling ads or other harmful content.

[Hispo]

There are already some social media which have very strict policies in place to prevent advertisers to push gambling onto the life of children and teens, the issue it is not advertisers, but rather other users who call themselves "influencers" who take money from casinos, disregarding the majority of their public is composed by under aged kids.
Before an influencer accepts to promote gaming on their social media accounts, then should be required to screen their public, so they only target adults.

Though, such screening and policy changes would be quite difficult to enforce in reality.

[SatoPrincess]

I agree with yahoo62278. Nowadays it’s like kids are raising kids. Parents no longer have a firm hand on their children, all they do is complain about the system. As a parent, it’s your responsibility to teach your children your family values and principles that will guide them through life. Do not let screens control the mind of your kids because you think it makes your life “easier”.

[TelolettOm]

Children should still be prohibited from using social media. However, these days, it's increasingly easy for them to access social media. Furthermore, many of them play online games, and within these games, they encounter various gambling advertisements that offer seemingly easy prizes, further tempting children to gamble, hoping for a large reward.

Furthermore, parents should be able to control and supervise their children's social media and online gadget activities. Parents' role is also crucial in their education. Without it, children will lose control and focus solely on what they can do.

[robelneo]

Meta has a policy on advertising related to online gambling, but it's still up to users' preferences.

About Meta's Online Gambling and Games advertising policy

Let's admit that many social media users don't enter correct information when registering, so the parameters are bypassed with incorrect data.

It's all about monitoring our kids' surfing activities, checking their online activity, and preferences. You cannot rely on social media due to a lack of verification, so parents have a duty to protect their children.

[Orpichukwu]

In my opinion, the way online casinos are promoting themselves on social media is a real threat to the next generation. If nothing is done, it could encourage children to choose gambling over learning and make decisions that might harm their future.

How can social media platforms help protect children from seeing gambling ads?

If the platforms are regulated in terms of the type of ads they approve for display, they will do the right thing. Their algorithm can be programmed to limit the display of certain ads on the timeline of infants, and if the adverts talk more about easy ways of making money, then they should never be approved. Misconceptions are a big problem in our society today.

[Darker45]

If were a government, I'd ban gambling ads on social media. Gambling ads should be shown with precision mechanisms. They should only appear to adults, to the market they wish to advertise their services. Gambling ads should be highly targeted.

In my country, this isn't the case. Gambling ads are all over, not just on social media but also on television, billboards along highways, malls, and so on. These are places where minors are exposed.

This must be one of the main reasons why there are so many minors here who are already addicted to gambling.

[alegotardo]

These days, online casinos are advertising a lot on social media, and I think this could be really harmful for kids in the future. Social media is a big part of everyone’s life now, and these gambling ads pop up in videos, posts, and stories everywhere. When young children see them and are tempted by the idea of making easy money, it can be dangerous.

Firstly, social networks should npt even be an environment where children can have access, but I confess that in today's world restricting this is almost impossible even for parents.
Having said that, I think that social networks have a very big responsibility, they are the ones who should implement very robust age filters, game advertisements should be categorized with geographic restrictions... they should use AI more to detect user behavior, try to identify profiles of children who try to break the rules or even disguised promotional content... technology exists, what is missing is the will of the platforms to act.

Meanwhile, I think that parents has the most important role, they are the ones who need to teach children about the dangers of gambling, teach them about probabilities, the basic mathematics of games and the concept of fun versus easy profit, so that they do not fall into the false illusion that many adults have today with this wrong perception of gambling as if it were an investment.

[Text]

social media is already part of kids daily life here in the Philippines & once they’re online it’s very hard to control what content they see. Gambling ads are designed to look fun & easy so for a child who doesn’t yet understand the risks it can be very misleading. I think social media platforms should be more responsible by strictly blocking gambling ads from accounts linked to minors & improving age verification systems there should also be clearer reporting options so parents & users can easily flag these ads at the same time education is important parents & schools need to talk openly w/ kids about gambling risks so they’re not easily influenced.

[9ja Amaka]

I agree with yahoo62278. Nowadays it’s like kids are raising kids. Parents no longer have a firm hand on their children, all they do is complain about the system. As a parent, it’s your responsibility to teach your children your family values and principles that will guide them through life. Do not let screens control the mind of your kids because you think it makes your life “easier”.

I also agree with you. The system is not worse than before. It's the same system but a different age; the only difference here is the people who lived in the system. Gen Z parents are making it seem the world all revolve on social media. Blaming all the bad influence on TIKTOK, Facebook, and Instagram. Instead of taking full responsiblity of what their kids have become.

Before I knew about gambling, I was over 20 years old. Now we see young ones below 14 gambling everywhere, going to the local betting shop. Charity begins at home, meaning if the parents are gambling in front of the kids, the kids will gamble as well.

[Julien_Olynpic]

In countries with strict regulations, online casino advertising isn't as widespread as the author claims. On the other hand, children actively explore the internet, and it's difficult to protect them from online casino advertising. This is only possible with comprehensive restrictions for children. For example, the Russian parliament periodically debates bills that would require children to have a passport and under parental responsibility to access the internet. In all other cases, children will inevitably encounter casino advertising.

[bitzizzix]

We can't avoid this problem, and I'm sure the government is always trying its best to eradicate gambling ads on social media and wherever they appear. But the problem is, if one or two gambling ads are removed or blocked, thousands more will appear. Therefore, parents play a crucial role in preventing children from engaging with or clicking on gambling ads. Parents should educate their children about the dangers of gambling ads if they see them and delete them if necessary, as well as inform them about the scary aspects of such ads. Most importantly, always supervise children when they are using gadgets and always check their devices when they are no longer in use to ensure proper supervision and avoid unwanted things, especially gambling ads.

[red4slash]

You can't expect platforms to protect children from gambling ads. From what I know, popular social media platforms have implemented various measures to reduce the impact of gambling on children. However, they can't completely protect children because gambling ads are often disguised as entertainment content, game promotions, or other content.
It's your job as a parent to regulate your child's device usage and ensure they don't access apps that aren't appropriate for their age. You should ensure your child doesn't access apps beyond their age-- there are parental control features on devices these days that you can use to control what they can see and do on their devices. This way, you can reduce your child's potential exposure to gambling ads or other harmful content.

That's a good point.
We as parents cannot give the responsibility that we should do to other parties including for social media, the internet or whatever it is because we ourselves should be able to suppress things like this so that children are not affected or even make minimization so that our children are not touched by things that can have a negative impact on children's growth.

Indeed, in the end there will always be limits when social media is used by children, maybe the algorithm will be different (depending on the content) but we still have to protect more against this because the internet, including social media, depends on how the user is. If in the end our children are not very well controlled by us due to lack of supervision then it could actually make the situation worse and when this happens it is not the internet and social media that are to blame but ourselves who fail to take responsibility for our role as parents.

[YOSHIE]

These days, online casinos are advertising a lot on social media, and I think this could be really harmful for kids in the future.

We know that currently social media can be accessed easily by all groups, be it minors, adults and also those who are old, we can see that 90% of human life today cannot be separated from social media, maybe 99% have Facebook, X, Instagram and other social media.

In essence, we can see that today's gambling advertisements are like seeing soap fish, appearing one after another, in situations like this, there is no other way than for each parent to play an active role in ensuring that their children avoid and do not get involved in the world of gambling.

Gambling advertisements on social media are currently like a virus that cannot be eradicated, therefore human awareness is currently the one that can overcome everything, especially preventing gambling for minors.

[LastKiss]

How can social media platforms help protect children from seeing gambling ads?

If social media platforms strictly regulate their advertising policies, they would likely lose a portion of their revenue, especially from industries such as online gambling. Because of this financial dependence, these platforms are unlikely to completely ban online casino advertisements from appearing on their sites. Given this situation, the responsibility does not fall solely on social media companies. Parents also play a crucial role in protecting their kids from the negative influences that can be found online. While it is not easy for parents to fully control their children’s use of social media, guiding them in a responsible direction is an important first step. Parents can talk to their kids about the risks of online gambling, encourage critical thinking, and set reasonable boundaries for screen time and online content.

Although advice and guidance may not have an immediate impact, these efforts can be helpful in the long run. Teaching children to make informed and responsible choices online can influence their behavior as they grow older and become more independent.

[SatoPrincess]

Now we see young ones below 14 gambling everywhere, going to the local betting shop. Charity begins at home, meaning if the parents are gambling in front of the kids, the kids will gamble as well.

That is illegal and the betting shops risk losing their license if they are caught. I’d report them if I were you. But you’re right, charity begins at home. As a parent, if you fail to lay the foundation for what is good/bad then your kids are going to feed on everything the world throws at them. You think it’s bad now, when they get to the rebellious teenage phase, and their favorite streamers are gambling promoters, who is going to shield them from gambling then?

[CryptoYar]

This is highly serious issue since gambling ads on social media sites show betting as normal and easy way of making money and this may trick children into ignoring dangers. Such ads are harmful to children as they use bright color, catchy music, and famous people to make gambling look like fun video game instead of way of losing money. Social media are beginning to use more effective tools to protect children, including checking ages more carefully using AI, blocking ads depending on interests of young people in their likes, and stopping famous people with young followers from showing gambling. Special settings can also be used by parents to connect their account to the phone of their children to block these ads but social casinos that play with fake coins are hidden threat since they teach children how to gamble without using real money. It is clear that these ads are dangerous to coming generation and so there is need to decide whether these sites should fix themselves or government should pass strict laws to ban such ads completely.

[Localhostspeed]

Kids are curious, and the lure of quick money can easily grab their attention. Early exposure to gambling can distract them from school and lead to emotional stress or addiction. Social media gambling ads put the next generation at real risk. Over time, this can lead to emotional problems and even addiction, because it’s hard for anyone, especially kids, to control themselves once they get hooked.

In my opinion, the way online casinos are promoting themselves on social media is a real threat to the next generation. If nothing is done, it could encourage children to choose gambling over learning and make decisions that might harm their future.

How can social media platforms help protect children from seeing gambling ads?

I think ads are personalized thing, Google for examples knows the algorithm they used in making ads for people and I'm not sure if I have seen casino ads from Google, that's if they accept casino ads from casino companies. As a parent, you have to personalized your kids phone so they don't get ads, if your kids age is correct, I'm not sure Google will try anything foolish to put kids screen time to gambling ads unless if your kids decide to explore the internet beyond their limit.

We have ipads for kids and mostly what they does on it is playing games, no internet or anything. Just play games and drop it when it's time for studies or time to get some sleep. This way you do the control of your kids and they don't explore beyond what you want them to see. You are not only putting limit to gambling activities, you are also protecting them against other harmful things that are online. If you don't connect your kids online, there is no way they will be exposed to online dangers.