A new study by Kaspersky tagged Safe Kids has revealed children’s interest in an online move from software, audio and video’ and ‘e-commerce to ‘Internet communication media’ and ‘computer games’ such as TikTok, YouTube, and WhatsApp between 2020-2021.
According to the study, 2020 turned out to be one of the most unusual years for modern children, as the Covid-19 pandemic changed many common life situations across the globe, including education, meeting friends and family, recreation and entertainment.
Kaspersky analysed anonymized data, such as search queries, the most popular Android applications and website categories requested voluntarily provided by Kaspersky Safe Kids users, to explore how the interests and needs of children have changed under the new conditions.
The most popular website categories among children in Nigeria were ‘software, audio, video’ (49%), ‘Internet communication media’ (20%) and ‘computer games (14%). Among the most popular apps, in first place is the messenger WhatsApp. In second place is video streaming service YouTube and in third place is Zoom. The top list also includes games, such as Brawl Stars, Roblox, Among US and Minecraft.
Children globally are very active in listening to and watching music videos on YouTube – its share is 17.35% in searches for music genres and videos. A number of ‘trend’ videos were also visible in the statistics – ‘pop it and simple dimple’ and ‘ASMR’ account for 4.43% of the queries. This year, requests related to the video game maker Gacha Life also stood out in the top ratings of children from all over the world with a share of 4%.
When it comes to music tastes, alongside traditional leaders like K-POP bands BTS and BLACKPINK, singers Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish and Travis Scott, another musical genre, like ‘phonk’ became popular.
There is also a trend towards ‘creative’ videos – more and more requests for beats, samples and lessons on creating music in various programmes began to appear at the top of the list. At the same time, TikTok remains the main musical trendsetter for children.
Cartoons account for half (50.21%) of all video searches by children around the world. The most popular ones are Lady Bug and Super Cat, Gravity Falls and Peppa Pig. In second place were various TV shows – the most frequent search in English was The Voice Kids. In movies and TV series, the most popular trailers were Godzilla vs Kong, Zach Snyder’s recent Justice League and the Disney+ mini-series WandaVision. Netflix also continues to attract the attention of more kids – the most frequent requests via the platform were for Cobra Kai and the now-iconic Stranger Things.
TikTok remains the undisputed leader among children, but at the same time, the perception of the social network has begun to transform. Now it is no longer only a social network for clips and lip syncs, as more educational and creative content has begun to appear on the platform.
At the same time, to create TikTok videos, one person has to do the work of the operator, actor, director, and the entire film crew. All this develops skills that can not only be useful for children in the future but could lead them to choose it as a profession.
For video games, those trending the most with children globally include Minecraft (22.84%), Fortnite (6.73%), Among Us (3.80%), Brawl Stars (6.34%) – which recently captured the attention of children and is very popular – and the much-loved Roblox game (3.82%). At the same time, the most frequently played game in the top 10 for almost all countries is Roblox.
Of all the regions, it was children from Kazakhstan who became leaders in visiting sites devoted to computer games – 26.01%. In second place were children from the UK (19.40%). But we see a very different picture in India, where children hardly ever visited sites dedicated to video games from a PC (just 5.08%).
