A sample survey “How safe are Indian kids online?”, commissioned by global security tech firm McAfee. Mumbai had the highest cyber bullying levels, with one third of the children reporting that they were subject to either cyber hacking, fraud or identity theft. The study, conducted among 500 children in the 9 to 17 age group across 10 cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai.
The finding showed that 58 per cent of the children, half of them between 4-8 years, admitted to sharing their home address and 40 per cent of them shared their photographs and 12 per cent even shared their parents’ credit card details on the Internet. While an average of 91 per cent surveyed kids across cities use the PC, there is increasing adoption of devices like laptops (26 per cent) and mobile phones (31 per cent).While the survey shows 32 per cent children were not aware of any online threats, 12 per cent children admitted to have been victims of some of the other form of cyber attacks.
Mumbai city also recorded the highest percentage of children watching adult content (40%). With their favourite movies and music, children are increasingly exchanging information indiscriminately in the virtual world exposing themseves to cyber exploits, survey reveals.
Filtering content like porn, gambling and violence is responsible of parenting. But 38% of the parents indicated that they were not aware of their children’s online activities.
Do not let your adolescent surf the internet on his own, keep a watchful eye on them while they are online. Teach them about the threats and dangers of befriending the wrong kind of people online. Inform them about cyber bullying, internet scams and other such dangers.
Educating them about keeping their pictures, credit card number and bank account info safe is vital. Inform them that people online cannot be trusted and can use this information against them.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/how-safe-are-indian-children-online/828695/0
A blog by Rakesh HP 