Experts called the factors reducing the level of safety of children on the Internet

The majority of children (76%) indicate their age in their social media profiles, according to the results of a Kaspersky Lab study, which was reviewed by Izvestia on March 14. Experts stressed that this is a potentially dangerous trend.

As the analysts explained, such confidential personal data as the age of a child can give attackers additional clues to implement fraudulent scenarios using social engineering.

At the same time, 28% of teenagers aged 11 to 14 do not mention their real age, but exaggerate it, probably in order to gain access to interesting content and features intended for an older audience, the company added.

Also, every fifth Russian child who has a profile on a particular social network does not close his page from outsiders. This reduces the level of child safety and increases vulnerability to intruders, from phone scammers to online groomers.

Dear diary: how scammers deceive schoolchildren under the guise of teachers

The criminals call the children and ask them to name the codes from the SMS

In addition, experts have found that children do not always inform their parents about what is happening to them on the Internet. Only 10% of parents are aware of cases where unknown adults have tried to gain their child's trust. However, according to the children themselves, 17% have experienced this, most often among schoolchildren over the age of 10. Attempts to establish contact usually occur in social networks — 50% of cases, online games — 32%, messengers — 31%.

"It is important to teach children to be careful and set privacy settings both on social networks and instant messengers, as well as in computer games, because intruders can use the personal information they share on the Internet. Specifying the age in open sources, whether real or overstated, and any other excessive frankness can lead to serious trouble," said Andrey Sidenko, head of online child safety at Kaspersky Lab.

He advised that access to personal information should be closed to outsiders, and recommended that parents establish an atmosphere in the family so that the child is ready to tell with whom and about what he communicates on the Internet.

Earlier, on March 12, it was reported that in 2024, Russians most often encountered fraudulent calls allegedly on behalf of bank security services. This was stated by 22.4% of respondents, according to the results of a survey conducted by RED Security. In addition, the attackers pretended to be representatives of telecom operators (21.7%) and law enforcement agencies (13.8%).