More than two-thirds (68%) of users of Kaspersky Lab’s Parental Control technologies encountered inappropriate or dangerous content online during 2014.
Adult content, gambling and sites carrying information about weapons were among the most prevalent threats detected by Kaspersky Lab’s protection technologies, according to the Children Online study.
The report found that more than half (59,5%) of users encountered pornography; over a quarter (26,6%) landed on Web sites dedicated to gambling; every fifth user stumbled across sites featuring weapons; and almost the same number were confronted by strong language.
Web sites carrying this kind of inappropriate content (pornography, gambling, weapons, strong language), along with others featuring drugs, tobacco and alcohol, were the ones blocked most often by Kaspersky Lab protection solutions.
Children today are often far more active Internet users than their parents. Kaspersky decided to investigate whether the Internet is safe enough for children to use without fear of facing inappropriate content, analysing data from users equipped with a Parental Control module.
In geographical terms, the countries with the most frequent Parental Control detections were China, the US, Germany, the UK and Russia. France, Vietnam, Brazil and Algeria also ranked in the top ten in terms of inappropriate content detection – but were relatively safer due to a lower frequency of detection.
Each country or region has its own distinct characteristics when it comes to the prevailing online threats for children. For instance, adult content was the biggest threat to users in most Eastern European countries: Czech Republic (66 detections per user), Romania (127 detections per user), Greece (185 detections per user), Hungary (263 detections per user).
Content about alcohol, tobacco and drugs was a major threat to users from Russia, Ukraine, Germany, the US and France. The frequency of detection was especially high in these countries. Gambling is a prevailing online treat for children from Baltic states (118 detections per user).
“To protect young people, we recommend that adults choose protection solutions with Parental Control technologies and make full use of safe “children” modes in search engines and applications that allow access to multimedia content and which are used by children,” says Konstantin Ignatev, Web content analysts group manager at Kaspersky Lab.
“However, although Parental Control technologies can block access to Web sites with content that is dangerous or distressing for children, they cannot offer reliable protection in situations where safe-by-default Web services like social networks or chats are misused by predators or users conducting cyberbullying campaigns,” he adds.
“Internet security deserves to be taken as seriously as real-life physical security. That’s why we urge parents to take an active part in their children’s real and digital lives. Only then can they be sure that they won’t miss the moment when their child might need their support.”
