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INDUSTRY WATCH
WATCH
INDUSTRY
The price of going social
After finding that 23% of children in the UAE
have faced threats associated with social
media, Kaspersky Lab has been holding
cybersecurity lessons in Dubai schools.
is not going anywhere, there has never
been a more important time to truly
educate children about online safety and
the dangers the online world can present
to them, to ensure that they can equip
themselves to enjoy online experiences
safely. Even though parental control
programmes remain a good measure of
child protection online – they also do not
guarantee 100% safety. While fighting
online threats to kids, education is a
pillar for children and adults alike. This is
something that Kaspersky Lab takes very
seriously on a global scale, and this is why
we decided to embark on these educational
initiatives in Dubai.”
I am proud to support Kaspersky Lab as
they roll out their educational roadshow for
children across the UAE.”
Children are particularly vulnerable to the
threats presented by social networks. In
a recent study by Kaspersky Lab and B2B
International, 23% of parents in the UAE
reported that their children’s online safety
had been compromised as a result of using
social media. A total of 10% of kids have
used the Internet to meet dangerous people
offline, 8% have become a cyberbullying
victim, 7% have shared too much personal
information about themselves, and 7% have
been exposed to deliberately hurtful and
malicious messages from strangers through
social media.
Kaspersky Lab’s experts have identified
several warning signs that will help parents
identify if their child is experiencing troubles
on social media:
• Sudden changes in mood for no
apparent reason
• Changing the style of use of their digital
device and social networks (for example,
the child begins to wake up at night to
go online)
• A sharp increase or decrease in
the number of ‘friends’ in their
social network
• The appearance of ‘friends’ with a big
age difference
• Abusive images and messages on the
child’s social media page;
• The child deletes their page on
social networks
To help children avoid threats related to social
networks, Kaspersky Lab experts recommend
‘friends’ should be only those who they know
personally, and even then, children should not
www.intelligentcio.com
Maria Namestnikova, Faisal Mohammed
AlShimmari and Maxim Frolov support
Kaspersky Lab’s cybersecurity initiative
publish too much personal information online
– information could be used by attackers if
they steal one of their friends accounts – and
children should avoid opening links from
unknown recipients.
Maria Namestnikova, Children’s online
safety expert at Kaspersky Lab, said:
“Considering the fact that the internet
To protect children on the Internet, Kaspersky
Lab has developed special solutions –
Kaspersky Safe Kids solution, as well as the
parental control module in Kaspersky Internet
Security and Kaspersky Total Security. These
programmes help parents monitor how
long children use their devices, set up an
Internet access schedule, and receive reports
about the time their child spends online. In
addition, they protect children from viewing
adult content, inform parents of the signs of
cyberbullying, provide statistics on calls and
SMS, and much more. n
CONSIDERING THE FACT
THAT THE INTERNET IS NOT
GOING ANYWHERE, THERE
HAS NEVER BEEN A MORE
IMPORTANT TIME TO TRULY
EDUCATE CHILDREN ABOUT
ONLINE SAFETY.
INTELLIGENTCIO
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