Including videos, articles and expert insight, ESET says the Safer Kids Online website offers resources for children, parents and schools with the aim to enable children to “enjoy the full potential of the internet in a secure digital world”.
ESET says every third person on the internet is a child, yet there can be significant dangers facing children when they surf the web, and cites the eSafety Commissioner statements that one in five Australian kids are socially excluded, threatened or abused online while 90% of Australian kids and teens have had a negative online experience.
“Despite this high occurrence of negative experiences, recent research by the eSafety Commissioner found parents were unconfident about how to deal with their children’s negative experiences, with just 36% searching for or receiving online safety information and only 46% saying they knew where to go to get help in relation to their child’s online safety issues,” ESET notes.
ESET Australia Country Manager Kelly Johnson says, “Navigating the online world is tricky for both children and their parents. Parents who are fully confident to help their children with the day-to-day challenges of life can suddenly find themselves on unfamiliar ground when it comes to their childrens’ experiences online.
“At ESET, we’ve been helping families have safer online experiences for 30 years and the Safer Kids Online website brings this experience together with specialist input from child psychologists to create a go-to resource for families.”
The Safer Kids Online website includes resources suitable for younger children, teenagers and their parents, developed in consultation with a child psychologist and ESET’s cybersecurity experts.
ESET says the resources provide guidance and advice for children and adults around how to stay safe online geared around key monthly topics such as how to build your child’s awareness of the risks in posting online selfies, looking out for signs of cyberbullying and protecting children from online predators. Each of these monthly topics will include targeted resources for different ages such as:
- A video series for kids aimed at ages 8+
- Comics for older children aged 11+
- An in-depth explanation in the form of expert articles and vlogs for parents and schools
Monthly quizzes and prize contests will also be available in which children can win funny and educational tech gadgets.
The Safer Kids Online site will also provide advice on software, such as ESET Parental Control for Android, which ESET says allows parents to look after their children’s online well-being - and includes the possibility of controlling inappropriate web content and managing the amount of time kids spend on certain devices, as well as the suitability of the applications they’re using.
“This allows parents to limit their child’s use of certain sites and receive reports on his or her online activities, hopefully becoming aware of any issues before they become entrenched,” ESET concluded.
