ESET has announced the results of its ‘Safer Kids Online’ survey, which was conducted among 2,383 children between 6 to 13 years in Australia at the end of 2021 to early 2022. The survey measured the children’s cyber wellness, online behaviour and understanding of cyber risks along with their perception of popular social media and games.
According to the survey, around 84% of Australian children indicated that they are ‘fully’ or ‘quite’ confident in their ability to avoid online risks. They seemed to have a good idea on what they should do when faced with online risks. For instance, close to 85% recommended seeking advice from parents when approached by strangers online. A majority of them also expressed being uncomfortable if a stranger were to request photos or videos of them.
“We are pleased to learn that children in Australia are able to deal with cyber risks confidently. While the Internet can be a great resource for learning, it can also pose safety concerns for growing children. The growing prevalence of games and social media in particular can be a source of cyber risks, such as aggression, hate speech in gamer communities and cyber grooming,” said Kelly Johnson, Country Manager, ESET Australia. “With many children being exposed to games early on in their childhood, and to social media websites around the age of 12 or 13 as shown in our study, more needs to be done to keep children safe from cyber risks and from being exposed to inappropriate content online.”
YouTube is the Most Popular Social Media Platform
When asked about the emotion that they associate with common social media platforms and games, around 86% of respondents said that they feel happy when they hear about YouTube, followed by Minecraft (~82%), Roblox (~70%) and Snapchat (52%).
YouTube was the most popular social media platform with approximately 96% of respondents reported having used it. There was a big gap between the most popular platform and the rest, with TikTok coming in second (~43%), followed by Snapchat (~29%), Instagram (~22%) and Facebook (~17%).
On cyberbullying, the survey found that approximately 28% of respondents had encountered someone online who acted in a hurtful or nasty manner towards them in the past. Almost 8 out of 10 children said blocking someone who sent a hurtful comment online is the right thing to do, which once again indicates that children in Australia have a good idea about how to protect themselves on the Internet.
While Australian children are quite confident in dealing with online risks, more than half (~53%) said they were very worried about ‘getting hacked or getting a virus on my device’ and ‘being bullied online’ (~49%). Almost half of the children also perceive the internet to be more dangerous compared to before the pandemic.
“Children naturally look to authority figures such as their parents and teachers for advice when dealing with cyber threats. It is critical that adults are able to teach these children how to navigate the online space safely. The launch of the Safer Kids Online platform aims to provide children, teachers and parents in Australia with the resources needed to keep children safe online,” added Johnson. “The resources, which come in the form of handbooks, exercises and activities were developed by child cyber wellness experts. It features various topics such as how to recognise malware, how to keep young gamers safe, how to handle cyberhate, best social media practices among many others.”
