Online begging aka "Your Internet Sugar Daddy"
Easy money, or so they think
It is an interesting phenomenon that shows up on online games that involve the use of real money such as poker sites and Facebook-based strategy games. Players who are mostly young, possibly not in the working force yet, and very reluctant to ask their parents for cash because they know the inevitable answer, will ask an almost total stranger for a small cash infusion with a promise to pay it back or, more often, no promise at all.
The reason the other player is almost a total stranger is that these are often some sort of team game that requires a cash influx to open up some advance features that take the game to a more sophisticated level. The online beggar has no problem asking for the handout and sometimes gets really ticked off when no one jumps all over their monetary demands saying things like I could be a better player if you gave me the money, but not in those same words.
It’s a disturbing characterstic of today’s youth. Over-stretched parents in search of the next “bimmer” have not taught their children the value of a hard earned dollar and have speedily doled out cash to keep them off their backs with no effort by the child to earn that money. So they grow up looking for more “Sugar daddies” and the Internet is perceived as a good playground for this game because the people on the other end can’t really dole out any meaningful punishment for this negative behaviour.
And what needs to be brought back in a child’s upbringing is punishment that is more effective and more painful than the “you’ve got a timeout there, mister”. That is usually followed by a disrespectful chuckle under their breath. Now the properly placed smack on a body part (not too hard), deprivation of something they really care about (not many of those) or doing a task they dislike (most anything that involves actual work) will have a better chance of actually teaching them something of value. Nothing worthwhile comes easily.
But then I am of the old school and not married and have no children, of course. Teach your children well—it’s a good song by Crosby, Stills and Nash and an even better life motto.