Modern children and where to find them: 73% of South African parents do not track their children’s location

Parents have always managed to set geographical boundaries – where their children could go and where they could not – back in time. Nowadays there is another opportunity to monitor the child’s whereabouts – to track the location of them using special software. Yet, according to Kaspersky’s special survey for parents, not many parents in South Africa realise this.

According to the “Responsible Digital Parenting” survey*, 73% of South African parents do not track the location of their child. The reasons for this vary: 37% have never thought of tracking the location, while 31% do not know how to do it. There is an option to have the software, which lets parents locate their children on a map and set a safe area for them to stay in, installed on their children’s devices. However, 41% of parents in South Africa claim they do not have it installed on any of their devices.

“Modern times offer a wide range of tools which can help in preventing accidents in real or digital life. It is crucial to know how to use them, what their benefits are, and, actually, use them. Tracking your child’s location can definitely save you a lot of trouble – its advantages lie also in the fact that it allows to control not only digital, but also real life of the child,” commented Andrey Sidenko, Head of Child Safety at Kaspersky Network.

To secure and protect your child both in digital and in real life, Kaspersky strongly recommends following this advice:

1. Learn more on the topic of children’s cybersecurity: explore modern trends, apps, the way of behavior that has to be adopted in order to safeguard against dangers (for instance, the basic security rules while on the Internet); update your network security knowledge periodically, use the Kaspersky blog https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/ to do this.
2. Communicate with your child and define the borders which are not meant to be crossed: discuss with them safe locations both real and webpages.
3. Install a reliable security solution such as Kaspersky Safe Kids to monitor your child’s activity successfully.

Reference:

*The “Responsible Digital Parenting” survey was implemented in conjunction with Toluna research agency in the end of 2019 – beginning of 2020. 5000 respondents from META region and Baltic states participated in the survey.

About Kaspersky

Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity company founded in 1997. Kaspersky’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into innovative security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and a number of specialized security solutions and services to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky technologies and we help 250,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at www.kaspersky.co.za.