Intel Security today released the findings of the 2015 edition of its Teens, Tweens and Technology Survey in New Delhi. This survey examines the online behaviors and social networking habits of tweens and teens aged 8 to 16 years old in India. The study revealed that almost half (44%) of the children polled would meet or have met someone in person that they first met online, which is a cause of great concern.
This study has found that 81% of the children within the age 8–16 years old are active on social media networks and 77% of children had created their Facebook account even before they became 13 years old. The children who are active on social media, 69% of them have published photos, 58% have posted their email address, 49% have posted the name of their school, 46% have posted their full birth date or phone number (42%).
”While 91% of parents claim to have had a discussion with their children about the risks of social media, interacting with strangers is not one of the primary topics. The most discussed topics are cyber criminals and identity theft (71%), privacy settings (62%), cyberbullying (57%), online reputation (53%) or popularity among friends (52%). Additionally, a surprisingly low number (17%) of parents are interested in finding out if their children are interacting with strangers online. This indicates that while parents believe that interacting with strangers online may be risky, this knowledge has not translated into remedial action”.
”90% of parents indicate that they would monitor all of their child’s online activities across all devices if they could. However the majority of the children (64%) indicate to hide (some of) their online activity from their parents indicating that even parents that do keep a watchful eye, are often deceived by what they see”.
”Additionally, while many parents (86%) claim to know the kind of activities that their child regularly participates in while online, more than half of the children (56%) claim that they would change their online behaviour when they knew their parents were watching and 43% children use anonymous names or aliases for their social media profiles.”
”One in four (27%) children know other people’s password and 61% of them have even accessed those people’s account without them knowing. 43% of the children active on social media claim to have witnessed cruel behaviour on social networks, while 52% of the children indicate that they have bullied people over social media themselves. Of these, 27% made fun of others, 24% called someone fat or ugly or made fun of other physical appearances, and 23% tagged mean pictures. Reasons cited for cyberbullying another child were because the others were mean to them (49%) or they just don’t like the other person (28%)”.
In these circumstances, cyber parenting is necessary and the parents should be tech savy. They should know how to use the latest devices especially those which their children use. They should talk casually and frequently with their children about the online risks.Parents must have passwords for their children’s social media accounts and passcodes to their children’s devices to have full access.
