With 51 percent of parents in Nigeria struggling to follow the rules they set for their own children online, which has in turn created parent dilemma, Kaspersky has recommended three ways that children can spend their time securely.
These three tips were pulled out from a new global survey, commissioned by Kaspersky, which explores the role of healthy digital habits in the family, as well as the effect of parents’ behaviour on children and vice versa.
Here are the tips:
- Surf and learn together. See where children spend their time online and explore how to best keep them safe.
- Consider downloading parental control apps and discuss this topic with your child to explain how such apps work and why they need them to stay safe online.
- Involve yourself in children’s online activities from an early age, so this is the established norm, and so you can ‘mentor’ them.
The Kaspersky survey noted that 61 percent of children in Nigeria receive devices before the age of nine. With that in mind, parents need to be role models in tech usage if they want to lay the foundations for healthy digital habits from childhood.
The survey results also show that parents perceive norms of behaviour to be different for themselves and their children. For instance, almost half (41 percent) of respondents from Nigeria admitted that they spend three to five hours on devices every day, and over half (73%) consider this time to be normal.
Yet, when it comes to children, half (51%) spend the same amount of time on devices as their parents – three to five hours a day. But, despite this, more than half of adults (42%) would like their children to spend less time on devices – up to two hours.
Furthermore, 22 percent of respondents from Nigeria also consider it reasonable to skip calls and turn off their phone so that no one can contact them. However, only 6 percent of these parents think such behaviour is acceptable for children.