Parents Get Online Gambling Blocking Tool, Making Ban Illegal

By developing processes that allow parents of children to protect them at their homes, Trend Micro has made the UIGEA as unnecessary as it was already dysfunctional.

Perhaps the major reason pushed by politicians and evangelists to ban online gambling is to protect children from exposure to Internet casinos. But CIOL.com reports that Trend Micro, an Internet security company, features a screening package which parents can use to prevent their children from accessing online gambling sites.

Ed Leyden, general counsel of the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association, has stated that "statutes must be constructed in the narrowest way, to observe the rule of lenity." This means that, if a goal such as protecting children can be achieved through a less intrusive means than an outright ban, that method must be employed.

By developing processes that allow parents of children to protect them at their homes, Trend Micro has made the UIGEA as unnecessary as it was already dysfunctional. Spencer Bachus cannot scream about "a casino in every child's bedroom" if parents have the tools to lock casinos out.

The Parental Control package comes as part of the Trend Micro Internet Security program, which also serves to ward against viruses, spyware, and malware. Parents are allowed to program the system to block sites by pre-set categories, or customize it to specifically block online casinos, making it useful also for problem gambling.

A Trend Micro representative said, "Trend Micro enjoys the credit of being the only company which offers this Internet Security Software that provides end-to-end, detailed and intuitive advanced parental control."