Tech Shout!

Security firm F-Secure has found out through a research that a majority of parents in the US and Europe are very worried about their children’s safety when they use the Internet. The research found that only 5.5% believe that their children are completely safe, while 18% felt that their kids were ‘somewhat’ safe.

In spite of the widespread availability of parental controls for Internet usage, parents are still fearful about issues regarding their children’s safety while using the Internet.

The research found that parents all over the world are concerned about their kids being exposed to questionable material. A mere 7.5% strongly agreed that their children are not exposed to any sort of questionable content with nearly half of the respondents disagreeing to the fact that their kids are not exposed to questionable material online.

Parents in the US and Canada felt most confident that their children were safe from any such material. In fact, 12% in both countries strongly agreed to the above statement.

According to Pär Andler, Director of Communications and Brand at F-Secure, “Parents are clearly aware of the potential dangers facing their children online, but it is saddening that more don’t feel empowered to protect their children by limiting their time online and controlling the content they’re exposed to.”

“Responsible parenting now includes being responsible for your children’s online safety, but this doesn’t need to be a major headache. Internet security software often comes with ‘parental controls’ as standard, so you can prevent children from being exposed to questionable content and take simple steps to avoid Internet mis-use, such as setting limits to the time children spend online. Parents are right to be cautious, but this should not prevent the family from taking full advantage of the fantastic opportunities the Internet can offer to children in terms of education, creativity and social connectedness,” added Andler.

Further, parents in North America were the most confident that their children do not go past the time limit set for time spent on the Internet. Precisely, 27% in the US and 23% in Canada agreed to the fact that their kids did not break the time limit. But, in Europe the numbers for this dropped to 17%.