September 20 2019: 84% of parents worldwide are worried about their children’s online safety, according to the latest survey commissioned by Kaspersky and conducted by the market research company Savanta.
Nevertheless, on average, parents only spend a total of 46 minutes talking to their children about online security through their entire childhood. More than half (58%) of those surveyed spend less than 30 minutes discussing the subject, which is half the time of one standard school lesson.|
Children’s privacy and security online are becoming one of the parents’ most prominent concerns. These are well founded as, according to the Kaspersky’s survey, over 9 in 10 children between seven- to 12-years old globally now have an internet-enabled device, smartphone or tablet.
In particular, nearly 2 in 3 parents (64%) agree their kids spend too much time online, which not only means trading other joys and benefits of the childhood for the screen time, but also being continuously exposed to various potential risks. |
The most dangerous online threats, according to parents, are children seeing harmful content, such as sexual or violent (27%); experiencing internet addiction (26%); and receiving anonymous messages or content inciting them to carry out the violent or inappropriate activity (14%).
To reduce potential risks and explain the dangers of surfing the Internet, 81% of parents say it is a joint responsibility between parents and schools to teach children about online safety. 86% believe that parents are better positioned to do so since children generally trust them more.
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To learn more about fears, most common threats, experiences, and tactics when
it comes to internet safety for children, please see the report.
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With parents acknowledging the onus on them to provide their children with guidance, yet spending less than hour doing so, the Kaspersky research makes clear that parents are finding such conversations difficult.
In having these conversations, parents cited the biggest challenges as being:

• Explaining the threats in a way that children can understand and relate to (60%)
• Getting children to take the threats seriously (51%)
• Dissuading children from following and/or giving them the confidence to not follow peer pressure (42%)