The measure aims to ensure a safer digital environment in schools.
Argentina.- From the General Directorate of Telecommunications, under the Undersecretary of Educational Technology and Modernization of the Ministry of Education of the province of Neuquén, it was announced that by the end of September, the Nation had blocked 6,000 websites in schools that enable illegal gambling, in which many cases involve students and minors.
According to reports from the government of the Patagonian province, the action was carried out through the technological floors – internal network distribution of internet service in schools – of about 600 educational establishments throughout the province.
“This blocking procedure on websites of illegal online betting aims to combat the scourge of online gambling addiction in children and adolescents,” they assured through a statement.
It was reported from the educational area that, at the instance of meetings, among representatives of the Digital Education team of the Undersecretary of Technology, from the Education portfolio and Natalia Toranzo, in charge of the direction of Complex Crimes and Cybercrimes, from the Ministry of Security of the province, progress was made in working on the topic with Educ.ar, the educational portal of the Secretary of Education dependent on the Ministry of Human Capital of the Nation.
In that sense, they explained that from said governmental space, the educational portfolio was requested to articulate information for the preparation of the list of pages to be blocked, which is done for the entire country.
It was also agreed with the intervening bodies, that the clandestine pages involved will not be disclosed, in order not to encourage their use.
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In an action driven by the prosecutor's office of Case Assignment and Public Attention, at the beginning of September, ten illegal gambling pages operating in the province of Neuquén were taken down. The measure was requested by the case prosecutor, Diego Azcárate, who initiated the investigation based on a complaint filed by the Institute of Gambling of Neuquén (IJAN) at the end of June.
According to reports received by the prosecutor, these sites offered online betting without authorization, lacked systems to restrict access to minors, did not guarantee payment to players, allowed anonymous betting, and did not comply with local regulations regarding data protection and tax payment.
To stop the crime, various measures were taken. Among them, a resolution was sent to the National Communications Entity (ENACOM) to notify the licensees of the companies operating in Neuquén to block access to the pages reported as illegal gambling.
It was also requested to the Central Bank of the Republic of Argentina to instruct banking entities, credit card companies, and virtual payment wallets to block any activity related to these platforms.
