Kaspersky launches guidelines to keep children safe online

Advice for parents after NSPCC poll finds most children have been threatened or groomed on web

Andrea-Marie Vassou, Computeract!ve 26 Jul 2007

Kaspersky has released a set of guidelines to help parents ensure their children use the internet safely.

The advice from the security company comes after recent research found children are still getting into trouble when online.

A survey by security company Webroot found that although nearly half of the 600 children polled used instant messaging and social networking websites every day, only a third of their parents were aware of this.

Another survey of 2,053 children carried out for the NSPCC found most had experienced bullying, threatening behaviour or had been asked to perform sexual acts on social networking sites.

Kaspersky said that children also faced other risks, including accidentally downloading malicious programs from websites they visit, which could lead to hackers taking over the computer.

The company also warned children could be tricked into disclosing personal information about themselves or their parents, which could lead to identity theft, or illegally download music or video files, which could leave parents facing civil charges for copyright infringements.

David Emm, senior technology consultant of information security software at Kaspersky, advised parents to “get savvier about what their children are being exposed to and how they use the internet.”

He said that it was not enough for parents to block such sites as “children know much more about this technology than their parents these days.”

For example if a parent used an Internet Explorer blocker to stop their children accessing a browser, a child would “most probably use Firefox to get around it”, he said.

The company advised parents to use parental control technology so they can blacklist sites which have content that is inappropriate for children and keep a log of the sites their children have visited.

It said parents should talk to their children about the potential dangers they face when online, encourage them to talk about online experiences that upset them and put the computer in a family room.