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Forget the fears about your kids getting a hold of the credit card to place bets through online gambling sites. The reputable one’s, after all, make you jump through hoops to prove your age and identity, even if you’re 65. The real fear parents is from so-called digital drugs and the high that comes from it, not to mention a new virtual phenomenon that is all too real: i-Dosing.
Oklahoma News 9 has investigated the latest drug craze. No more corner drug dealer. No more sneaking into Mom and Dad’s medicine cabinet. These digital drugs are readily available right on one’s computer.
It’s a high you get from your headphones.
“Kids are going to flock to these sites just to see what it is about and it can lead them to other places,” Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs spokesman Mark Woodward told News 9.
I-dosing involves donning headphones and listening to “music” — largely a droning noise — which the sites peddling the sounds promise will get you high. Teens are listening to such tracks as “Gates of Hades,” which is available on YouTube gratis (yes, the first one is always free).
Those who want to get addicted to the “drugs” can purchase tracks that will purportedly bring about the same effects of marijuana, cocaine, opium and peyote. While street drugs rarely come with instruction manuals, potential digital drug users are advised to buy a 40-page guide so that they learn how to properly get high on MP3s.
“It is amazing how preoccupied nations including the US are with blocking off access to certain websites they deem as ‘amoral’ such as online gambling yet seemingly ignore the true dangers that lurk on the Web,” expressed Payton O’Brien, Senior Editor of the Gambling911.com website.
Israel, for example, just began blocking access to i-Gaming sites this past week. Australia has tried to do the same under the guise of “child safety filtering”. In the case of Australia, a leaked blacklist of websites included a dentist’s operation.
“I don’t think that any mother would object to blocking websites that offer free drugs to children,” observes O’Brien, who herself is a mother.
Oklahoma school officials are doing their part by banning iPods at school.
Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
