...It is not cute
THE INSTIGATION and reinforcement of worrying behaviour by parents who lead their children to believe that it is cute that they are able to do the latest dance moves during a children’s party when they vie for the video light is particularly disturbing for Joy Crawford, co-founder and director of programmes and training at Eve for Life.
“We do the dutty wine with them and think it is OK. There are so many things in our society that our children are exposed to that adults find funny, or we think, ‘Well, I don’t have a choice, or I’m just sending him to pick up a cigarette here or there’, but really, for the child, it becomes a habit that sometimes becomes a lifestyle and puts them at severe risk,” she said last Wednesday at a Gleaner Editors’ Forum at the media house’s North Street, Kingston, offices.
While it is not able to say how many children are engaged in gambling, with or without the knowledge, consent and endorsement of their parents, the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission is moving to get a grasp on the numbers in order to better inform its efforts to address underage gambling.
“We don’t have any concrete research on it, but that is actually in our plans, to do some research on attitudes and usage of gambling. We think that’s actually one of the things that will come out of the research, the extent to which people engage in gambling and what they see as gambling. Many people think there is no harm sending the child to buy a ticket or to collect the winnings on a bet, but it is, in fact, causing children to say, ‘If I can buy for you, then I should be able to do it,’” said Crawford.