McAfee Report reveals that Indian tweens are potentially
vulnerable to risky internet behaviour
There is a growing trend of Indian tweens (kids
between 8-12 years old) that are rapidly adopting internet through multiple
devices and a variety of social networking platforms. McAfee unveiled its Tween
& Technology Report 2013 which analyses the online behaviour of
India’s next generation of digital natives.
Following are significant Bangalore
specific highlights from the report:
1. Parents
of Bangalore tweens closely follow Chennai in introducing their tweens to
Facebook - 79%
2. Interestingly,
Bangalore tweens rank highest (71%) in saying no to chatting online with
strangers
3. Bangalore
tweens have the strictest parents when it comes to monitoring internet usage.
93% of them have rules on how long their kids can be online
(National level findings of the survey is
enclosed as Annexure 1)
The findings of McAfee’s Tween &
Technology Report 2013 were released at a panel discussion with Melanie
Duca, Consumer Marketing Director (APAC) McAfee, Venkat Krishnapur,
Vice-President of Engineering- Consumer and Mobile, McAfee India, Anindita
Mishra, McAfee Cybermum India, Dr. V. Jayanthini, M.D, D.P.M, Leading
Psychiatrist and Meeta Sengupta, a veteran educationist and advisor to schools.
Speaking about the relevance of these new-age
parenting challenges, Anindita Mishra, McAfee Cybermum India said, “There
is an increasing influence of the online world on children’s persona that
cannot be undermined because of the emotional and developmental impact it has.
The role of parents in delivering safe and positive cyber experience to their
kids is significant than ever before. Having a genuine and transparent
two-way communication with children is absolutely fundamental to establishing a
safe and positive cyber experience.”
“With malware writers mastering their craft,
they continue to transfer their skills to new and popular mobile platforms in
addition to PCs and laptops. The proliferation of multiple mobile device usage
and this staggering increase in new malware will require Indian parents to
recalibrate on how to arm their children with best online practices ensuring
safe online experiences for them.” said Venkat Krishnapur, Vice-President
of Engineering- Consumer and Mobile, McAfee India.
Melanie Duca, Consumer Marketing Director (APAC)
McAfee said, “As a company, McAfee is dedicated to making the
Internet safe by providing resources to help educate and protect families. Our
Cybermum initiative and cyber education program in Indian schools reinforce
commitment towards this cause.” Across APAC, McAfee has developed a Cyber
Education Program, which is delivered to school-aged children by McAfee
employee volunteers. The initiative has now been rolled out in India whereby
McAfee is reaching out to Indian schools and will scale up the program over the
next one year.
McAfee’s Tween & Technology Report 2013 was
conducted through a survey administered across Indian online tweens aged
8-12 years old comprising 572 male and 428 female respondents from Mumbai,
Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Delhi.
Annexure 1- India Analysis Sheet- McAfee’s
Tweens & Technology Report 2013:
Daily dose of internet usage/ online hours has
become a must for tweens.
a) 53% of
online tweens are online daily between 1-3 hours
b) One in
three tweens would miss the internet and their phone if it was missing for a
day
c) Tweens
are online for approximately 2 hours a day and 45% of online tweens are online
later than 8pm
d) Within 4
hours (from 5 pm to 9 pm) 76% use internet while 23% of tweens online till
after 9pm
On an average, online tweens in India are using
between 3 and 4 devices that can be internet enabled - laptop, mobile &
desktop predominantly.
a) 61% of
tweens are spending 1-4 hours daily on desktop
b) Mobile is
important - 40% of Tweens use tablets and 68% use mobile to access the internet
Tweens have a clear preference for not only the
devices used for internet connectivity but also the type of activity on these
devices. So while desktop is preferred mainly for home work, tablets are
dominant when it comes to exchanging pictures and playing games.
a) 70% use
desktop for home work related stuff compared to 38% using tablet
b) 49% use
tablets for playing games & exchanging pictures compared to 40% using
desktop
c) 22%
tweens spend 2-4 hours every day on Xbox
Smartphone/ Mobile:
Internet access is still predominantly PC/laptop
based, however, mobile is important - 40% of Tweens use tablets and 68% use
mobile to access the internet
a) 16% of
tweens are spending more than 4 hours each day on smartphones/ mobile
b) 9 out of
10 tweens use mobile phone (89%) and tablets (91%) to play games
c) Only
15% of tweens use phone for home- work related aspects
In terms of social networking platforms, FB is
by far the most popular site, followed by Skype and Twitter. FB is used
significantly more than Skype and Twitter
a) Top 3
ranking in terms of usage – 70%- Facebook, 44%- Skype and 27%- Twitter
b) All sites
(especially Facebook) are more popular with older Tweens 10-12 years old (FB
usage ranges from 58% for 8 year olds to 79% for 12 year olds)
c) 88%
of FB users use FB to share photos of themselves while 73% use it to share
photos family & friends
d) Almost
half of the tweens surveyed share information about themselves over FB (41%)
e) This year,
Skype has emerged as more widely used than twitter whereby one out of two
tweens uses Skype compared to one out of four who uses twitter
Facebook facts:
a) Parents
generally know what’s going on - 89% are friends with their child on Facebook
b) 89% of
Tweens using Facebook have their parents’ permission to use the site
c) 73%
of Tweens using Facebook asked their parents to be their friend
d) 83% of
Tweens feel it is okay for them to be using Facebook because their parents are
e) 70% of
tweens were taught to use Facebook by the parents. 52% were taught by
friends
f) Users
share a wide variety of items on Facebook – 88% share photos of themselves, 73%
photos of family & friends, 59% events and 59% information about themselves
With Facebook, a significant number of parents
are handholding their kids on the platform by assisting them in setting up
their account and monitoring their activities. But parents apply internet rules
in terms usage and timings very strictly, much to the dislike of tweens.
a) 89% of
online tweens have parental permission to use the site
b) 89% of
online tweens are also friends with their parents on FB
c) 70%
of online tweens say their parents showed them how to use Facebook
d) 57% claim
they were helped by their parents when setting up one of their account
e) 89% of
tweens using Facebook have their parents’ permission to use
f) 87%
of parents place limits on online usage
g) 53% of
parents remove online devices from tweens bedrooms at night
h) 49% of
online tweens are frustrated by these rules
A disturbing trend on the rise among tweens is
their apathy towards their own online safety.
a) 58% of the
surveyed tweens use risky / low level security passwords online.
b) Almost
half of the tweens surveyed share information about themselves over FB (41%)
It is not uncommon for tweens to be exposed to
online nastiness; however, a good thing is that they are not passive observers.
a) 12 year
olds are more likely to have seen nasty comments online than 8 year olds (33%
vs. 16%)
b) 1 in
4 (27%) of online tweens has seen as nasty common directed at them or a friend
online, While 21% did nothing , most of the tweens who have witnessed online
cruelty either told a friend (49%), told parent (46%), told teacher (20%), told
family member(20%) or someone else or looked onto internet for help
rather than doing nothing
They are becoming more trusting of the virtual
world to familiarise themselves with unknown people, in spite of being aware
that it is risky
a) 36% of
online tweens have spoken to someone online that they didn’t previously know
b) 12 year
olds are more likely to chat with strangers than 8 year olds (40% vs. 25%)
c) 22%
of online tweens have shared personal information online - 26% who did share
this did not think it to be risky
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