In a connected world even mobile phones for children’s usage have become less of an expensive toy and more of a necessity.
They help parents stay in touch and kids learn to develop an understanding of technology. Once parents haveweighed up the pros and consof their kids having smartphones they are likely to top every Christmas wish list. But making the decision to give a child a smartphone is only half the battle, making sure it is properly and safely configured for a child’s usage is the other part.
Cyber risks related to mobile devices are an issue every user should be aware of as the Mobile Statistics of the Kaspersky IT threat evolution Q3 2020 shows. Email scams, social media phishing and password theft on gaming platforms are all but a few examples of the online threats facing digital users today, and sometimes young people can lack the life experience to recognise these threats. Nevertheless cybercriminals make no exception for kids’ devices, according to last year’s Kaspersky research: six out of ten (60%) of parents say they have directly witnessed an online safety threat incident related to their child. Therefore parents might want to make sure that their little gift receivers can use their presents safely and happily, safe from inappropriate content and online threats.
“Thanks to the pandemic, children are spending more time at home with limited activities to keep them busy. During this time, they are increasingly turning to YouTube to watch entertaining, funny and educational videos. However, parents don’t necessarily have the time to check which videos their child is watching, and they want to keep them safe without continuously intruding on their life”, comments Elena Kadochnikova, Product Marketing Manager at Kaspersky.
One of the easiest ways to keep kids safe online is to maintain open dialogue – talk to children about surfing, gaming, restrictions (and why they make sense). It should be expected that children usually try to find a way around parents’ rules and restrictions, and for that reason Kaspersky recommends some helpful presets:
Here are 5 tips for smartly setting up Santa’s mobile present:
- Account management following local law
The legal age for creating a mobile OS account varies, starting with 14 in a few European regions. Option for underage kids is to create separate linked account to parents’ accounts. By doing so they do not violate terms of service and maintain control of the account, at the same time little ones can access all permitted services. For security reasons, parents might also receive security notifications for occasions when someone logs into the account from an unknown device or tries to reset the password.
- Set up of a family group
By setting-up a family account you can manage your child’s purchases and share games, books and TV shows – media content stays diversified and tailored to interests of the kids but same time it is possible to prevent/block explicit content and inappropriate apps. Usage stays in alignment with age restrictions for games and movies by using parental control.
- Control internet use
“With great power comes great responsibility” - and responsible use of given resources must often be learnt. The freedoms and abilities that the web provides comes with drawbacks however. But it is possible to mitigate these risks and drawbacks with the use of appropriate controls and limitations.
- Smartphone protection against security issues
Controls and behaviors are all good measures, but a robust security software solution must not be overlooked along with installing a parental-control application. A versatile parental control solution like Kaspersky Safe Kids not only helps to regulate a child’s smartphone and computer activity, but at the same time the application also protects from various security risks and cyber threats.
- Secure your child in the real world
It is important to keep children ground in reality and ensure they do not spend all of their time online. And when children are out and about, you can keep an eye on their whereabouts by using a parental control solution a GPS tracker to stay informed of a child’s location can help to find little one’s location on a real-time online map. Features such as safe area locations and notifications, along with low battery alerts can provide additional reassurance.
Find more set-up details on “How to create a Google child account” on https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/google-account-for-your-kid/37230/.
To learn more about the security solution Kaspersky Safe Kids please visit: https://www.kaspersky.co.uk/safe-kids
