12 pc India kids online are victims of cyber crime

BANGALORE, INDIA: Increasingly kids in India are getting access to gadgets like laptops, tablets and smartphones and this is making them a easy prey of cyber criminals.

 62 per cent  kids who participated in a survey ‘How safe are Indian kids online?’, commissioned by McAfee, said they  shared personal information online, 39 pc of kids do not tell their parents about these online activities and further 12 pc of all polled kids had been victims of some kind of cyber threat.

The survey by Synovate was held across 10 cities - New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ludhiana, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Cochin, covering 500 children and 496 parents.

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“Online concerns for tweens and teens are not what they were two years ago” said Venkat Krishnapur, Senior Director, McAfee India. “The threat landscape has changed dramatically — especially in the context of how children of various ages in urban India use the internet and how they are exposed to various forms of threats online.

“These findings are extremely relevant from the perspective of Indian parents. As the internet evolves into a new platform for self expression and social interaction, children are indiscriminately indulging in information exchange leading to an increasing rate of cyber exploits. The introduction of technologies like McAfee Family Protection is a step in the right direction as it enables us parents to understand, handhold and mould our children’s online persona and behavior”, said Anindita Mishra- McAfee Cybermum India.

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