Experts named the main threats to children on the Internet

Identity theft, destructive communities and fraudulent manipulations around political topics, as well as cyberbullying have become the main threats to minors on social networks, experts from the Security 2.0 Center of the Russian Peace Foundation told Izvestia.

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The experts emphasized that the danger is the excessive openness of minors on social networks.

"The publication of text, photo and video data indicative of well-being, containing personal data, banking information, information on movements, addresses, places of frequent stay (geo-tagging) carry an obvious threat to the persons involved and their entourage. The data gets into the open access and darknet, it is used by fraudsters, representatives of various criminal groups to commit illegal actions", - they noted.

Personal data is often stolen through mail, social networks and applications.

"An example can be phishing to obtain confidential information about people and their environment, as well as the use of fake public Internet access points," the center pointed out.

The experts also highlighted a trend related to the use by criminal and banned organizations of various online games and communities in social networks. Through them with the help of manipulation children are induced to commit real crimes.

The number of cyberbullying episodes is also growing. According to the results of 2024, the experts of the center "Security 2.0" recorded an increase in the number of high-profile episodes involving more than 100 people by 15%. The number of cases of bullying on the Web caused by parents' publications has also increased by 30% - now there are 23% of all episodes.

Cyberbullying related to the publication of content by parents can have a negative impact on the emotional state and psychological well-being of children, said Elena Sutormina, head of the monitoring center "Safety 2.0", first vice president of the Russian Peace Foundation.

"Parents, wanting to share moments from their children's lives, often publish photos, videos or personal information on social networks without thinking that their publications can be used against their children. For example, a photo in an embarrassing situation or a video from a family holiday can be used by classmates for bullying," she emphasized.

In addition, experts added that with the development of neural networks, children are increasingly turning to them for information, but the answers may be unreliable or even biased.