Pornography and erotica tops the list of undesirable sites that children visit. This is according to a Kaspersky study analysing the Internet search patterns of young users.
Ten categories of undesirable Web site content were chosen for the investigation: pornography and erotica; illegal software; narcotics; cruelty and violence; strong language; weapons; gambling; anonymous proxy servers; payment systems; and online games.
Parents traditionally deem three categories as especially undesirable for their children: pornography and erotica; cruelty and violence; and narcotics.
With regard to these three, the investigation returned the following findings:
* In nearly all countries, the pornography and erotica category leads – by a large margin –in the visit-ratings based on notifications from Kaspersky Lab’s Parental Control module. The highest percentages of visits to sites with pornographic/erotic content were in Japan (74,9%) and in France (68,9%). Number three was Mexico (56,3%).
* Sites belonging to the category of cruelty and violence are visited most often in Mexico (8,6%) and the US (7%), and in Europe – specifically in the UK and Spain (both 4,8%).
Based on Parental Control statistics, the popularity of sites in this category is relatively low. Nevertheless, it’s worth pointing out that getting to such sites accidentally is practically impossible: they need to be located on the Internet intentionally. Accordingly, even these low percentages of visits to sites of this category can signal to parents a degree of danger and be a cause for concern.
* Sites in the narcotics category are visited most often in Mexico (1,8%) and the US (1,4%). In third place comes the UK (0,9%).
Illegal software is especially popular in China, where it is in front of the rest (69,4% – against the 24% of Spain, and the 10,6% of Japan). Extra danger posed by sites in this category lies in the fact that on sites offering illegal software, malware is very often distributed too.
Some indicators of other categories include:
* Strong language – Russia (10,7%), Italy (9%), Mexico (7,7%);
* Weapons – Russia (26,4%), Italy (13,7%), US (12%);
* Gambling – Italy (15,7%) US (15,4%), UK (13,5%);
* Anonymous proxy-servers – Mexico (2,1%), UK (1,2%), Italy (0,8%);
* Credit card payments – Italy (8,5%), France (5,5%), Germany (2%); and
* Online games – Germany (41,1%), Australia (13,4%), US (11,2%).
“Besides unwanted content, the Internet brings with it other dangers no less damaging for children, for example cyber-bullying or cyber-trolling. Aggressors can exploit all possible channels of online interaction – including social networks, forums, chats and messengers – which when used together can cause victims untold mental suffering,” says Anna Larkina, senior Web content analyst at Kaspersky Lab.
“Technically, the fight against cyber-trolling is not so simple, so Parental Control is not so effective against it. As a rule children are not able to cope with aggressors on their own; therefore, parents have an important role to play in the protection of children from cyber-bullying. Ideally, parents need to pay attention to their children’s Internet activity.”
