Despite this, only a third of parents are really alert to the danger: just 32 percent are concerned that their children may spend money online without parental consent, and only 27 percent are worried that their kids share confidential information too freely online. At the same time, the parents use various methods to avoid problems and protect their children from online threats. For example, 39 percent personally control how their children use devices, and 13 percent asked their Internet provider to block access to certain sites. In addition 38 percent of parents regularly remind their children about the dangers of the Internet, while 19 percent opted to befriend their children on social networks. It is significant that only 23 percent of parents use specialized software to regulate their children’s activities online, although this is a convenient feature available in many security solutions.

“When parents think of their children spending time online, their first concern is to protect them from unwanted content on the web. However, there is another important aspect that should not be forgotten, and that is the problems kids may cause for their parents. Applying parental control is not showing distrust to your child; it’s a sensible precaution with which you can, among other things, protect your device and the data on it. Interestingly, it also works the other way round: adult children might use these kind of software products to help older parents who know little about cyberthreats,” said Konstantin Ignatev, Web Content Analysts Group Manager at Kaspersky Lab.

The Parental Control module for Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X is included in Kaspersky Internet Security – Multi-Device. It allows parents to control which sites their children visit and which games they play, as well as disallowing file dowloads, blocking access to content on unwanted topics and preventing the disclosure of confidential information. Besides, parents can further improve security by analysing their child’s messages in social networks and instant messengers and/or by specifying unwanted keywords and phrases that should be filtered out. This way, Kaspersky Lab’s technologies help protect finaces and confidential data from cybercriminals, and children from the risks that may lurk in the online environment.

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