For Teacher’s Day, the Rakuten Viber team looked at whether parents worry about how their children spend time online. 65% do: a third use parental controls, while the rest talk about online safety.

Do parents worry about how their children spend time online

Two-thirds of Ukrainian parents worry about how their children spend time online: 32% use parental controls, while 20% regularly talk about online safety. By contrast, 11% of respondents said, they are not worried because their child knows how to protect themselves. Responses to the question «Do you worry about how your child spends time online?» were distributed as follows:

• Yes, so I have enabled parental controls – 32%;
• Yes, so we regularly talk about online safety – 20%;
• Yes, so I always ask whether everything is okay – 13%;
• No, my child knows how to protect themselves – 11%;
• No, but I limit their time online – 10%;
• No, there is nothing scary there – 6%;
• I don’t think about it – 8%.

What worries parents most about time spent online

41% of parents said their biggest concern is the child’s health – posture, worsening eyesight, etc.
Meanwhile, one in five respondents (20%) worry about internet or gaming addiction.

Responses to the question «If you do worry, what concerns you most?» were distributed as follows:

• Health (eyesight, posture getting worse) – 41%;
• Internet or gaming addiction – 20%;
• Communicating with strangers – 17%;
• Cyber fraud – 5%;
• Adult content – 4%;
• Cyberbullying – 2%;
• Other – 11%.

Note: the survey methodology was an anonymous online poll, n > 18,000. The key age group – 34-45, with more than 50% of respondents under 45.

How to further protect your child online

To protect against unknown contacts and potential fraudsters, the Rakuten Viber team advises telling younger users about the following features:

1. Message Requests: all incoming messages from unknown contacts will be collected in a separate folder, where they can be easily deleted. To enable the setting, go to Settings => Privacy => Message Requests.
2. Control over group additions: set a filter for who can add your child to new group chats. To do this, go to Settings => Privacy => Messages => Group Add Settings => choose My Contacts.
3. Caller ID: this feature will warn about likely spam or calls from malicious actors. Explain to your child how the feature works and enable it via Settings => Calls and Messages => Caller ID.
4. Blocking: users blocked in Viber lose the ability to send messages or make calls. To do this, tap More => Settings => Privacy => go to Blocked Numbers List => tap the plus sign (Android) or Add Number (iOS) in the top corner => select a contact or enter a phone number in the search bar  => confirm that you want to block the contact or phone number by tapping the checkmark in the top corner  (Android) or Done (iOS).

The survey shows that for most parents, children’s online activity has already become part of their daily concerns. At the same time, concerns extend beyond cyberthreats: health, excessive screen time and the risk of addiction are coming to the fore. Therefore, the most effective approach remains a combination of technical safeguards, parental controls and regular conversations with a child about safe behaviour online.