The use of social networks and their connection with the gambling addiction in adolescents it is a growing concern. A research team from the José Vicente Zapata school has been studying this problem and shared its findings in the MDZ Radio 105.5 FM studios. This team, made up of the director Claudio Peña, the graduate in Education Sciences Romina Bondi, the professor of Economics Anabel Navarro and the professor of Physical Education Juan Pablo Montane, has identified a new form of gambling addiction: cybergambling.
Non-legal sites are used, which aggravates the situation. The cybergambling It is an addiction to online gaming, facilitated by easy access through social media and digital devices. This phenomenon highlights the need for dialogue, information and education on the responsible use of technology, both for students and their families, to prevent these addictive behaviors in young people.
Claudio Pena: “Since last year we have observed some situations where our students are consuming these platforms and fall into this whole issue of gambling addiction in the game. This began to worry us because it was during school hours, in class, with teachers. For years we have been researching the topic of responsible use of social networks and everything related to cyberbullying, and we saw that this year we have to focus on this topic. We began to investigate, to find out, to work with the students themselves, with the families, it is a very new topic and very new situations where, even, many of the parents were asking us for help. Faced with this, we took this research format, we held focus groups with the students so that they could tell us what is happening.”
“Everything is presented as a game, so it is something entertaining, easy to access for them, where cell phone use is very important. Nowadays they also have different platforms where they can manage money, and it is all related. If this increases, can transform into this disorder that is gambling addiction“.
Romina Bondi: “Teachers are the first to begin to detect this in the classrooms. There we began to investigate how these online betting platforms work and we saw that everything is perfectly programmed to capture and maintain the attention of the children. There we began to investigate how it works the playful loop, which is how these platforms are organized to maintain attention based on the data of the people, algorithms and the platform.
Juan Pablo: “The same thing happens with bullying and cyberbullying. Bullying has always existed, but when it was in person you went to school, left and it was over. The difference is that it is enhanced because it is there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, instead The same thing happens with games, betting. In my generation you had to wait until you were 18 to enter a casino. Now anyone can access an online casino.
“We began to investigate with the idea that children are aware of the system of capturing attention. There is talk of a magic triangle in relation to the data that one provides through social networks. From school we try to have a vision and a responsibility for what digital identity one has. Every like, every post, every comment you make is part of what our digital identity is. These data interact with the algorithm that makes each service ideal for me. be hyperpersonalized. The idea is that the kids are aware and can say ‘hey, it’s trapping me but because it’s a system.'”
Romina: “The way in which they promote this is in the main sports teams, such as the National Team, and the influencers. The access mechanism is very simple: the influencers promote the platform, they give you a link and from there you access a WhatsApp which gives you the account number to start betting.
Anabel Navarro: “As a team we want to try to reflect, there are specific preventions. We want to do training, dialogue, reflect with students, with parents, families through talks and really tell real cases, like the case of the journalist, Cayetano, who deals with the problem of gambling. We want to reach the adolescent through information and dialogue with the family.
