A third (34pc) of parents are unaware of what online accounts their children are using. That’s according to a survey by Censuswide on behalf of International Cyber Expo, among 600 parents across the UK. The survey also found a quarter (26pc) of parents admit they do not know who their children are interacting with online.
Among findings:
•Over a fifth (21pc) of parents claim to know about all accounts, but they’re unable to easily access them to monitor what their children are doing and who they are interacting with.
•15pc admitted they don’t know about all their children’s accounts as they allow them total online freedom – where almost half of these parents (46pc) refer to their child of 13 years old or younger.
•11pc of parents blame their lack of awareness on having too many accounts to keep track of.
•8pc believe their children are dishonest about their online activity.
As for other online behaviours among children:
•14pc of parents admit their children have bullied or trolled others, with 54pc of those perpetrators being ten years old or younger.
•13pc have experienced cyber bullying online, with 41pc of those victims being 10 years old or younger.
•7pc have set up false profiles, with a further 7pc having hacked or accessed an unauthorised account – of the latter, 49pc are ten years or younger.
Comment
Simon Newman, CEO of Cyber Resilience Centre for London, is a Cyber Expo Advisory Council Member. He said: “It is challenging enough to ensure children are safe in the ‘real’ world, let alone worrying about their presence in the digital world. As threats become harder to identify online, it can be easy to fall into the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ mentality.
“However, as we know, children can be highly susceptible and easily fall victim to dangerous and/or abusive behaviour. In some cases, they may even be groomed by online criminal groups to carry out illegal activity on their behalf. Therefore, it has never been more important for parents to take an active interest in their children’s online activity.”
The survey was commissioned by International Cyber Expo, the annual cybersecurity expo, due to run at Olympia London on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 27 and 28, alongside the Security Expo (pictured, the 2021 show).
Visit: https://www.internationalcyberexpo.com.
To register as a visitor for free entry across the two days, visit: https://ice-2022.reg.buzz/e1.
