STUDY: Nigerian parents and their children’s social media life

34% state their child has seen or listened to something that seemed suspicious to them, be it videos (68%), music (43%) or photos (25%)

 The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has forced families to spend their free time mostly at home, which usually means spending much time using different Internet-connected devices. Apparently, children’s growing online activity can cause lots of worries for their parents.

According to a Kaspersky survey, 25% of Nigerian parents claim that they have come across something in their child’s social media account that seemed suspicious.

Elaborating on what it exactly was, they mention groups or public pages they join (56%), posts that they publish or share (50%), people they interact with (31%), video on their page (31%) and private messages (19%).

What is more, 34% state their child has seen or listened to something that seemed suspicious to them, be that videos (68%), music (43%), or photos (25%). Obviously, this data shows the need to explore the interests of children, to make sure everything is okay or if it is necessary to take action.

However, not all the parents realise it – only 19% of them befriend their children via social networks in order to be connected with their kids – sometimes real communication is not enough and the parents have to look carefully at their children’s webpages.

“It gets harder and harder for parents to keep up with the pace of the modern evolving world. They are often left out of the picture as they simply do not catch up with trends that emerge way too fast.

However, it is possible to stop this backlog by communicating with your child and ensuring your presence on the Internet – to build trust and a good relationship with your child you have to know what you are talking about with them,” states Maher Yamout, Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky.

In order to eliminate groundless suspicions about your child’s digital life and to secure their presence on social media, Kaspersky strongly recommends that parents learn more on the topic of children’s cybersecurity; Communicate with the child while defining boundaries and install reliable security to monitor the child’s activity.