Cyber SecurityFor the Kids

Kaspersky Warns Parents: Top 3 Online Dangers for Kids as School Starts

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(source: Kaspersky)

Parents, as our children goes back to school, Kaspersky has a friendly reminder for us: there are some online risks out there for our kids. Let’s be vigilant and keep them safe!

Where the danger comes from: Three major threats

Over on Kaspersky’s blog, Lance Spitzner from the SANS Institute talked about the three main online threats our kids are up against these days. Here they are:

  1. Strangers: sexual predators, sextortion, fraud;
  2. Friends: cyberbullying, pranks, sextortion, poor examples; and
  3. Self: oversharing, sexting, bullying, downloading/sharing illegal content

In a 2022 study by UNICEF, ECPAT International, and Interpol, about 2 million Filipino kids between 12-17 years old faced online sexual abuse and exploitation. Additionally, recent stats show that half of Filipino teens aged 13-17 experience online violence.

A Kaspersky study found that young people, aged 11 to 26, often share too much online. Even though they believe they’re savvy about online safety, they’re most likely to fall for scams. About 55% shared personal details like their name and birthdate on social media. What’s more, 72% couldn’t spot phishing scams, and 26% admitted to getting tricked by one.

Tips for parents from Kaspersky

Have a regular talk with your children

Renowned psychologist Emma Kenny recommends to spend ten minutes everyday before bed discussing your kid’s day including their online activity. Ask them to share with you about a positive and a negative that they encountered online.

Not only does this normalize conversation on internet protection—it even contributes to a cybersmart approach to safety and after a short time feels less like making a special effort to “check in”.

Educate yourself and your children

You will feel confident talking to your kids about the cyberworld only when you understand it. Take the time to read up on emerging trends, games, and channels to understand how they may affect your child’s online activity. Discuss technology and the potential dangers with them. Even if it means that you have to play dumb and ask them to help you set up a social media account. By showing that you trust them as teachers, the more it builds up that mutual trust.

Educate them on things that you are hearing or seeing when it comes to cyberthreats or security breaches. There is a great wealth of advice on the web on internet security such as on Kaspersky’s blog to help you.

Build an atmosphere of openness and comfort

An ideal situation is that you’re aware if anything makes them feel uncomfortable, threatened or unhappy. Deal with cyberbullying as you would with real-life bullying: encourage them to be open and talk to a trusted adult (preferably you) if ever they receive any threatening or inappropriate messages.

Set boundaries

Establish clear, age-appropriate ground rules about what is acceptable and what is not for them to do online. Explain why these rules are being put in place and make them aware of the consequences of going somewhere they shouldn’t or using tech when they shouldn’t be.

An example is sharing a photo online that stays on the internet forever and may have an impact when they’re older and working in an important career. Help frame potential actions as potential consequences. Make sure you review these as your child as your child gets older.

Use the resources available to you

Parents can never hover over their children 24/7 to monitor their activities online. A smart move is to use a reliable parental control software to establish the framework for what’s acceptable—how much time (and when) they can spend online, what content should be blocked, or what types of activity should be blocked (chat rooms, forums, and so on).

Parental control filters can be configured for different computer profiles, allowing you to customize the filters for different children.

You also have an option to protect your child’s device using technologies out there like Safe Kids that’s automatically loaded in Kaspersky Premium. It works both on iOS and Android.

Discover more about Kaspersky Premium’s security features for the entire family and explore the ongoing raffle promo at https://www.kasperskyph.com/, for a chance to win up to P10,000.

Don’t forget to make use of settings provided by your ISP, device manufacturer and mobile phone network provider. For example, most phones allow you to prevent in-app purchases, so you can avoid them running up hefty bills when they play mobile games.

Ask for help

There is no manual for parenting. You learn as you go and you will inevitably make mistakes along the way. Not everyone has the same parenting style and that is OK.

Choose what is right for you and your family. If a situation appears going out of control, remember that the local law enforcement is an ally and can help.

“From a security perspective, it doesn’t matter whether you’re 6 or 56 years old. We are now living in a world where all of us are now digital citizens and our digital footprint is expanding by the day. If at this point, adults still keep on falling for cybercriminals’ traps, it’s impossible to expect children to know what to avoid in the cyberworld so protecting them should be our top priority as parents,” said Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky.

Written by
Tech Beat Philippines

Tech Beat Philippines is the social media news platform for all things technology. It is also a part of the GEARS section on Daddy's Day Out.

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