Almost one in five parents have lost either money or important personal data due to their children’s unmonitored computer use, according to a 2013 survey carried out by B2B International and Kaspersky Lab.
The survey found that globally about 27% of parents feared their children had been at risk on the Internet at least once over the last 12 months. About 11% of that survey reported that children had faced inappropriate content and 7% of respondents had evidence that their offspring had contacts with strangers.
About 10% of respondents reported that their children had accidentally removed important data from their PCs and 5% of children had inadvertently shared this data with others. Similar numbers admitted they had been stung by an unexpected bill for online purchases after children got access to their parents’ accounts in App stores. In total 18% of families reported financial costs or lost data due to their children.
These results show that children and their parents face serious risks on the Internet, and prove that special measures are needed to avoid them.
