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