Families in UAE at risk of losing money
Staff Report
DUBAI - A quarter of internet users in the UAE or 29 percent have lost either money or important information as a result of their children’s online activity, according to a joint research by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International. This number suggests that, in addition to the risk of children encountering cyber threats, they can also cause inadvertent problems for their parents.
However, the numbers are not so surprising when we consider that 28 percent of respondents in the UAE believe their children know little about computer technology and 28 percent believe their kids know nothing of cyber threats. That same lack of awareness poses risks for parents who allow their children to use their online devices.
Seventeen percent of respondents said their children had accidentally deleted important information, while 10% faced unexpected bills from app stores after the youngsters got online. All in all, every fifth polled parent confessed they had had an experience of losing money or important data because of their children’s actions.
Despite this, only a third of parents in the UAE are really alert to the danger: just 34 percent are concerned that their children may spend money online without parental consent, and only 27 percent are worried that their kids share confidential information too freely online. At the same time, the parents use various methods to avoid problems and protect their children from online threats. For example, 29 percent personally control how their children use devices, and 13 percent asked their internet provider to block access to certain sites.
In addition, 27 percent of parents in the UAE regularly remind their children about the dangers of the Internet, while 14 percent opted to befriend their children on social networks. It is significant that only 23 percent of parents use specialized software to regulate their children’s activities online, although this is a convenient feature available in many security solutions.
“When parents think of their children spending time online, their first concern is to protect them from unwanted content on the web. However, there is another important aspect that should not be forgotten, and that is the problems kids may cause for their parents. Applying parental control is not showing distrust to your child; it’s a sensible precaution with which you can, among other things, protect your device and the data on it. Interestingly, it also works the other way round: adult children might use these kind of software products to help older parents who know little about cyber threats,” said Konstantin Ignatev, Web Content Analysts Group Manager at Kaspersky Lab.
