Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 26 | Page 91

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 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 91