Lesson video

Welcome to RSHE, PSHE lesson, internet safety and harms. Gambling, debt and targeted advertising.

My name's Mr. Duffy and I'm really glad that you've joined me today.

Today we're going to look at resilience towards gambling.

Now this lesson does cover issues about gambling and addiction.

If this is a sensitive topic to you, we recommend checking with a trusted adult before starting or doing the lesson with a trusted adult nearby.

So hopefully you've done your quiz and you did really, really well on that.

We're then going to look at advertising awareness, gambling-like behaviours, virtual currencies, and the exit quiz at the end.

So let's take a look at some keywords then briefly.

So gambling is playing games of chance for money or material goods.

And resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress.

So for this lesson, you're going to need an exercise book or paper 'cause you will need to write some things down as there are some tasks throughout the lesson and you will also need a pen or a pencil.

So let's take a look at the law then.

So in the UK, you need to be at least 18 years old to gamble legally, whether that is online or live.

And what we mean by live, is at a venue.

For example, a casino.

However, the minimum age for lotteries and things like football pools in the UK is 16.

So gambling advertising has been banned from media designed for young people since 2007.

Is that true or false? Make your choice and I'll see you a second.

It's true, so despite the fact that gambling advertising has been banned for media designed for young people since 2007, the Gambling Commission survey of 2020 found that 58% of young people say, they have seen or heard gambling adverts or sponsorship.

So where do you think then, young people might see gambling being advertised? Pause the video, I'll see you in a second.

So although gambling advertisements have been banned on platforms designed for children under the age of 18, it still doesn't stop them from being exposed to gambling advertisements.

Here we have an image of the champions league and football team within the champions league or with other sporting performances or tournaments, you may see sponsors on their shirts.

For example, Bet365, across a team's football shirts.

Sponsorship at sporting events.

So certain spots in events, for example, maybe the darts, the snooker, or football matches may have a betting company as their main sponsor.

Sponsorship at those sporting events.

We might see, for example, the Grand National and around the course at certain places, at certain points, we may see betting advertisement at that event.

It may even be sponsored, they may even sponsor the network within which it's been shown on.

So maybe, at ITV for example, well certainly ITV, or Channel Four, if it's being shown on those channels, may go to an advertisement.

And the first advertisement might be sponsored by advertising brand.

Seeing betting shops on the high street.

Having the logo above the door in bright colours is advertisements.

Yet under 18's are seeing this constantly.

Behaviour and habits of celebrities on social media.

You know, harmlessly putting on their social media account, on their news feed, so that they've maybe had a bet, an accumulated type bet on the football and maybe it didn't come in, or that it did come in.

You are going to be experienced and exposed to these things which are technically gambling advertisements, which according to the last statement, should have been banned for you since 2007.

And advertisements on social media.

Now you might not see an advertisement before 9:00 PM on the telly, because that's been banned, it's strictly regulated.

However, there's nothing to stop you seeing those adverts to some extent on social media, 'cause it's all based on who you follow and the algorithms are designed and made specifically for you to see certain content.

So how are you then protected from gambling advertisements? Pause the video, I'll see you in a second.

So the Advertising Standards Authority, also known as the ASA, have produced a 16 page document called gambling advertising, protecting children and young people.

It's quite a lengthy document full of jargon, and full of information on what gambling firms or media outlets for people who design the adverts must follow.

A set of guidelines and a set of laws and rules that non-broadcast and broadcast marketing communication, people, companies should follow when advertising.

And they're very, very strict.

However, there are lots and lots of holes in it, as we identified earlier.

Not taking into account that under 18's may be watching a football match.

Four English football league clubs are sponsored by an advertising company.

And okay, an under 18 buying their football shirt is not allowed to buy the football shirt that has a betting company across the front of it, just like an under 18 can't buy a football shirt that has an alcoholic brand advertised on it.

It still doesn't stop them seeing it 'cause their stars, their heroes, the best players, the team that they follow, that they're going to say day in, day out, the team that they watch on the telly or watch live, still there.

So although there are rules and regulations, there's still going to be an element of under 18, young people still being exposed to betting advertisement or gambling advertising.

And it's really important that we're able to build up a resilience towards that and understand that it's still advertising and understand and build up that resilience towards gambling type behaviours, in which to stop potential issues later on, such as addiction.

So the ASA, the codes limit children's exposure to gambling and advertising and ensure that where they see ads directed at adults, marketing communications are not likely to influence detrimentally.

They require the marketers to take all the reasonable steps to ensure that advertising is not targeted at under 18's, even through selection of media, or the ad content.

So we've got to be very, very careful.

They can't try and be clever and smart about it and go, well, let's advertise here because lots of under 18's use it but it's technically a platform that we're allowed, there's strict rules.

So for example, maybe on certain YouTube channels, influencers where they know that there's a high young person population following that, they probably wouldn't be allowed to advertise for betting companies on those certain social media platforms or for those certain influencers potentially.

Prevent advertising being directed to adult audiences posing a risk to under 18's as well.

So what is then, online gambling? We talked about a little bit about this in the last lesson, but what is online gambling? So online gambling is any kind of gambling conducted all the internet.

This includes virtual poker, casino, or sports betting.

What it means is, it's highly accessible.

People can gamble online anytime, anywhere.

They can be at home, could be at work, anywhere where they can get the internet, they can gamble.

Now for some of us who enjoy gambling, that's fantastic.

Now you might want a little gamble, a little bet on the football or on the horses, Grand National maybe.

Go on your phone, get the app, have a little bet.

What it means is, they can be quite risky, as it's very easy to access, and because it's easy to access people can gamble more and more often and then start to develop these addictive behaviours.

And that's why they can get out of hand quite quickly.

So what is gambling like behaviour? Pause the video, write some ideas down, I'll see you in a second.

So gambling like behaviour is behaviour that's not necessarily directly linked to gambling, for example, placing a bet or doing the football, betting or the pools or something like that.

But it could be, using something like an online type game.

So children enjoy playing online and gaming, and they enjoy it.

It can help them to build strategic teamwork and creative skills.

Online gaming extends normal playing to digital landscapes and provides a chance to make new friends.

But what a lot of these gambling like behaviours, in terms of these online games, is these sort of currency boxes.

And these kinds of currency boxes, where you might, you know, loot boxes for example.

Where you buy this loot box using money, because your account's attached to it.

So it comes with a monetary value.

So you buy this loot box, you don't really know what's in it.

It might be really useful to the game.

Or it might just be something completely pointless.

You don't know, but it's a loot box.

You've purchased this loot box, and you open it up and it's cost you, I don't know, an amount of money.

And inside, there's nothing at all that's worth to you.

That's gambling like behaviour.

Yes, it's part of the game, might be fun, might be enjoyable, but it's gambling like behaviour because you're looking at trying to get an advantage.

You're not sure what it is, it's exciting.

You don't know what's in there, you don't know what the outcome's going to be.

So therefore, it becomes chance.

Therefore, there's a monetary value, trying to get something that's going to give you an advantage.

What's the definition of gambling, isn't it? And this is one of the many drawbacks associated with online gaming.

That children are spending money on in-game purchases like loot boxes, because they feel they have to in order to maybe keep up with their friends.

So the friends are like, this far down in the game and I got this, and that really helped me get past all this.

I'm going to do that, I'm going to buy that loot box.

And you buy the first loot box, nothing in it.

I need, X, Y and Z, you make a couple of purchases and before you know it, you demonstrated gambling like behaviours, all to just simply advance in the game.

So Mohammed is a shy, studious student, keeps out of trouble, generally happy, fairly ambitious.

And he's found friends online.

Gaming and spends around two or three hours per day online.

He's started to make in-game purchases in order to keep up with his friends.

What are your concerns then about Mohammed? Pause the video and I'll see you in a second.

So my concerns then with Mohammed, is that one, he's spending quite a lot of time, isn't he? Two or three hours a day on gaming is quite long time that, if you consider, you know, he's going to be at school for a big chunk of that, And then he's studious, he's got his homework And he's going to do his work 'cause he wants to do well, he's ambitious.

So it sounds to me like he's maybe gaming a little bit too late into the night.

Why is he spending so long on gaming? Is it because he's started to display gambling type behaviours, where maybe there's almost an addiction there, an addiction to want to do better, to get further in the game.

Can't stop playing 'cause he wants to win.

He wants to get further, he wants to keep up with his friends who he's made online.

He wants to get far as he can in the game.

He's buying these loot boxes to get an advance, to advance in the game, to get whatever it is that he needs to move forward in the game.

Again, to keep up with his friends.

You think about maybe the FIFA.

The FIFA cards, buying more cards so you can create, and build a better team.

Keep up with his friends, it's gambling like behaviour.

So my concerns as well would be, does Mohammed need to build a resilience towards this, and understand that he can by all means, enjoy the game.

Does he need to build up a resilience to spending money in the game, to keep up with his friends and to keep progressing? Does he need to build a resilience so that he can accept, well, I'm just enjoying the game.

I'm just enjoying it, I don't need to buy these loot boxes and these extra add-ons that are costing money.

In order to build that resilience, does he maybe need to speak to parents and speak to them and say to them, look, I'm spending more and more money, I can't advance, I'm struggling to advance.

I can't keep up with my friends, I'm spending money on these loot boxes, but there's nothing in them.

Does he need to maybe speak to his parents, speak to his teachers, open up about potentially, what we've said earlier, which is gambling like behaviour, and build that resilience.

To make in-game purchases, a lot of it is attached to, could be your own, it could be parent's debit or credit card.

There's usually a bank card attached to platforms. So it might be Xbox, in which case you've got a card attached to your Xbox account, playing whatever online game, whatever it is.

And you're making these in purchases but what's virtual currency? Pause the video, I'll see you in a second.

So virtual currency is currency held within the blockchain network that is not controlled by a centralised banking authority.

Virtual currency is different than digital currency, since digital currency is simply currency issued by a bank in a digital form.

So virtual currency isn't controlled by central banking authority and it isn't money, real money, but in a digital form.

So can you think of any types of virtual currency? There's been quite a lot in the media over the last couple of years about virtual currency.

Can you think of any? Pause the video and I'll see you in a second.

One of the big and probably most obvious answer is Bitcoin.

We hear a lot about Bitcoin don't we? You might not have never heard of Litecoin or Ethereum.

These are all block chain, virtual currencies.

There are two major types of virtual currency.

We've got centralised or decentralised, XRP is centralised currency.

So run by a central banking authority.

Many decentralised currencies however, are based on blockchain networks, such as Bitcoin.

There are many advantages and disadvantages of virtual currency.

Certainly, some of the advantages is that they're convenient.

The many advantage of virtual currencies is convenience.

Payments with virtual currencies are fast and easy due to its network-based nature.

You get it instantly, you don't have to wait an hour or two hours or two or three days.

The use of virtual currencies is especially convenient in international transaction.

And you think how close our world is now, we want things immediately.

Businesses are constantly buying and selling of services and goods and want that money moved around instantaneously.

And virtual currency's a really good way of doing that.

It's decentralised.

So additionally, decentralisation also avoids intermediaries.

It lowers transaction costs and advices the security failure of a central administrator.

But there are a lot of disadvantages as well.

Lacks comprehensive regulation.

So lacking of supervision from a central administrator, decentralised virtual currencies provide opportunities for illegal transactions and money laundry.

And that's certainly one of the biggest issues.

The other really big issue, is that they're highly volatile.

How many times have we seen in the media recently where Bitcoin has gone skyrocketing? You know, people have bought one Bitcoin and now it's worth thousands, but then suddenly, it falls.

Then it goes back up again and then it falls again, highly volatile.

Out of the charge of a central bank, the value of a virtual currency is highly volatile.

Therefore it is less favourable tool to store value or medium of exchange.

For example, Bitcoin peaked at the end of 2017 at nearly $20,000 per Bitcoin.

It later a dropped to around 3000 per Bitcoin.

So it's highly volatile.

So if you want a stable currency, then virtual currency is not necessarily going to be the best one.

You want something that's quite stable.

And then we've got obviously the potential security history because isn't centralised.

Virtual currencies also raise security concerns.

Despite improving encryption techniques, the loss or leakage of authentication information is still possible and can cause great losses to virtual currency owners.

So people can hack them and that's again, obviously, if you've a lot of it, you want to protect it and you don't want any security issues.

And part of that security issue is because it isn't centralised.

So what I want you to do now, is complete this table.

So draw table out, and I want you to write those advantages and disadvantages, I'll see you in a second.

So we've talked about those advantages and disadvantages.

We've talked about the advantages it's extremely convenient.

And as I said, virtual currencies are fast and easy due to the network-based nature, it can get there quickly.

It's decentralised, so you've lowered those transaction costs and avoided some security failure of the central administrator.

But equally, there disadvantages.

Lacks comprehensive regulation.

So illegal transactions and money laundering.

So it can be used by organised crime units in gangs, 'cause it's easy to move money as there's no regulation around the world, hiding that money because of illegal transactions, illegal things that they've been doing to generate that money.

It's highly volatile, up and down, up and down.

If you are an investor, you're a business person, you're not going to want a highly volatile currency.

You want something that's quite stable.

You know where you're at.

As I said, Bitcoin peaked in 2017 at 20,000 per coin.

Dropped down to 3000 quite soon after.

It's on the up again, highly volatile.

And we've got then obviously that potential security issue.

If you've got a lot of it, you're going to want to protect it.

Not only if you've got a lot of it, you don't want it to be going up in price and coming down in price as quickly as it's gone up, you want it to be quite stable.

If you've got 10 Bitcoin, you want to know that that 10 Bitcoin is going to be the same price in 12 months time as it is now.

At the moment, because it's decentralised, it just isn't.

Could be worth more or could be worth nothing.

And you want to protect your investment.

Equally, you don't want people to be able to hack, break it because it's done on an algorithm, and the way they move it around, you can easily get into that and steal some of that money, or certainly the authentication process can break down.

So really hope you've enjoyed the lesson today.

And I think one of the big things to learn is certainly from Mohammed's point of view is building that resilience towards in-game purchases and understanding and identifying that that is gambling type behaviour.

Especially if it starts getting out of control.

Where he's maybe spending more and more money than he's got and it becoming a need to buy those loot boxes, as opposed to just wanting one or two.

And going and seeking the advice.

Being able to go speak to his parents or his teachers and confiding in them and saying, I've spent X amount of money.

And you know, I keep wanting to buy more loot boxes.

And the other thing is to understand that in game and played in games can be absolutely fine, and enjoyable and continue to enjoy online gaming but just recognise and build up that resilience towards maybe some of those advertisement type in-game purchases.

Like I say, I've been Mr. Duffy, I really hope you've enjoyed this lesson.

If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Twitter, tagging @OakNational and hashtag Learn with Oak.

I've been Mr. Duffy, I'm really glad you joined me today and I'll see you soon, goodbye.