Research Says Indian Children Spend More Time Online in Watching Videos

A report released by Kaspersky Lab Solutions on Monday reveals that Children in India are more prone to view movies and TV shows on streaming services than social media post and content. Kaspersky monitored the online activities of about 60,000 Indian children between June and mid-August this year and the data were gathered through Kaspersky’s parental control feature, which records the content children search for, but restricts them from accessing them.

Kaspersky accumulated statistics of all such content, including adult content, violence, weapons, religious associations, alcohol, narcotics and news media.

The report stated that “Among Indian children, 0.19% people searched for alcohol and narcotics, 2.81% for adult content, 3.06% for computer games, 6.26% for news and media, 13.80% for electronic communication, 40.68% for communication media and 2.92% for other content.”

“Students view videos and movies on streaming sites like Netflix, Amazon Prime and listen to music on streaming services like iTunes, Apple Music and Spotify. Children also watched content on YouTube, particularly videos posted by YouTube star PewDiePie, who boasts a subscriber count of over 60 million. They are also playing games like Fortnite and PUBG,” the report also added.

Balsingh Rajput Superintendent of Police, Maharashtra Cyber Crime said “Now, there are many ways for children to gain access to various kinds of movies and shows, which could have a profound impact on them. The rise of deadly games like Momo and Blue Whale challenge is also an issue. Even if they hide behind a Virtual Private Network, which allows them to mask their Internet Protocol address, the content they watch will still affect them.”

He further added that parents should keep a constant eye on the activities that they surf the internet. Also, he mentioned that the number of children looking up drugs and alcohol online was very small and the cyber cell was taking the findings seriously. He moreover said that they have an online portal where people can report cyber crimes and victims of online challenges. They have also encouraged their officers to make parents and teachers in their authority aware of the perils on the internet. Rajput said that it is very important for parents to keep an eye on what their children view on the internet.