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Only 23pc of parents monitor their kids' internet activity

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CIOL Only 23pc of parents monitor their kids internet activity

In today's social media age, there are an array of tools that parents can use to oversee their kids’ online behaviour; however, only 23 percent of parents monitor the internet activity.

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According to ‘New Family Dynamics in a Connected World’, a global survey of 13,000 people conducted by OnePoll for Intel Security, 76 percent of parents allow their children to take an internet-connected device to bed and 34 percent of parents claim they have discovered that their child visited an inappropriate website on their device.

The study that aims to “better comprehend how families’ attitudes and habits are evolving as their homes and lifestyles become increasingly connected" also notes that about "36 percent of parents have been called out by children for being on their devices during family time."

“While there is tremendous excitement for the conveniences that today’s technology brings, we know the weakest link in those devices within a connected home put consumers at risk,” said Gary Davis, chief consumer security evangelist at Intel Security, in a statement. “We must empower parents to actively manage how their families interact with those devices. When the correct security and privacy measures are taken, consumers will feel more protected enabling them to fully enjoy all the benefits of living in a smart home.”

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The report also points out the old ways of supervising the internet usage. About 35 percent of parents admitted to monitoring their child’s device usage by keeping the device in their possession and only giving it to them when they were around. Forty-eight percent of parents allow their child to have one to two hours of screen time per day, and 20 percent allow their child less than one hour a day.

According to another study conducted by Norton, 40 percent of Indian parents allowed their children to access the Internet before age 11.

“Children today face threats beyond physical violence or face-to-face encounters,” said Ritesh Chopra, Country Manager, Norton by Symantec. “Cyberbullying is a growing issue and parents are struggling to identify and respond to this threat. A concern for many parents is that cyberbullying doesn’t stop when their child leaves school - as long as your child is connected to a device, a bully can connect to them.”

In order to keep your children safe from cyberbullying, Intel Security advises parents to start conversations about cyber-bullying from the young age. Also, set up a good example limiting your time on social networks when at home. Intel also advises parents to take control of your home network, the hub for all of your connected devices.

In April 2016 Gartner forecasted that “there will be more than 10.5 billion ‘things’ in homes by 2020.” This simply means that there will be more risk of personal data being compromised and more vigilance is needed on our part.

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