39% of South African parents don't know what their kids are doing online

Parents have strong motivation to constantly educate themselves and keep up to date when it comes to Internet trends: their children.

It might seem obvious that parents should have a good idea of what their children are doing online, but, according to a recent Responsible Digital Parenting survey, 39% of South African parents don't.

The survey revealed that these parents don't watch video blogs and they are not sure what is popular among their kids and their friends.

Why is this potentially dangerous?

Parents need to know what their kids are doing online. When kids go online, unsupervised, they are at risk of cyber bullying, grooming, exposure to violence, porn and conspiracy theories, among other things. 

And the kids are certainly online: 59% of children surveyed watch video blogs, including music ones (57%), those dedicated to games and toys (54%), movies (47%) and computer games (38%). 

Video games are one of the most popular pastimes among kids and teenagers: 83% of South African children play video games.

Of those, 28% are involved in multiplayer games where they are able to communicate with other people participating in the game.

An interesting fact is that 9% of families have conflicts about their child’s digital life, with 64% of parents claiming that their child spends too much time on the phone or and 31% saying their child is doing nothing useful. 

'Be present on the Net'

"Being digitally educated and involved in social media activities is a must-do for a parent nowadays" says said Andrey Sidenko, Lead web content analyst at Kaspersky, "as the lack of knowledge in this field can trigger some conflicts in the family."

He explains that in order to understand their child, to be able to communicate with them and discuss certain modern trends of the evolving world, parents have to read more and be present on the Net. 

"It can possibly save the parents a lot of trouble and make their children respect them," Sidenko adds.

How to stay aware of online trends 

To successfully maintain a friendly relationship with your children and be aware to which things they dedicate their free time to, Kaspersky recommends following these steps:

1. Read more on the topic of Internet trends, challenges, video games and new technologies – not only will it better your conversations with children, but also keep you informed.

2. Communicate with your child, ask them about their digital hobbies and problems, and offer help if it is needed. 

3. Install a reliable security solution to protect your child from some of the more obvious dangers of the digital realm. 

Submitted to Parent24 by Kaspersky Safe Kids  

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