Press Releases

Intel Security: “The Realities of Cyber Parenting: What Pre-teens and Teens Are Up To Online” Study Reveals Concerns About Online Safety & Privacy

The following video presents Michael Fey: Are you technically fit to parent?:

Hidden behind the allure of the newest innovations and the web are plenty of potential pitfalls for children—from online bullying to inappropriate content. Michael Fey offers practical advice for parents to close the digital divide between them and their children to help ensure the whole family has a healthy interaction discovering and enjoying the latest technologies.

Michael is the Worldwide Chief Technology Officer for McAfee where he drives the company’s long-term strategic vision and core innovation efforts. In his role as CTO, Michael is also responsible for overseeing McAfee’s go-to-market initiatives, collaboration, and execution across McAfee’s sales, product management, development, and research teams. Michael is co-author of the book entitled Security Battleground: An Executive Field Manual published in 2012 to provide guidance to executives who shoulder oversight responsibility for information security around critical business resources.

Today, Intel Security is releasing its annual teen study, “The Realities of Cyber Parenting: What Pre-teens and Teens Are Up To Online.” The study examined the online behaviours and social networking habits of pre-teens and teens ages eight to 16 years old as well as parents from 11 countries, including Canada. The research revealed that when it comes to online activity parents are most concerned (24 per cent) about their children unknowingly interacting with predators. Nineteen per cent of youth said they would meet, or have met, someone in person they first met online.

Intel Security’s Online Safety Expert, Stacey Conner offers tips to parents on how to facilitate online safety, especially as the school year comes to a close and children have more spare time.

Image: Courtesy of Intel Security

Image: Courtesy of Intel Security

  • Connect With Your Kids. Talk casually and frequently with them about online risks, and make sure the communication lines are open. Foster discussions around relevant news stories or cases at schools.
  • Set Password Rules. To show camaraderie and trust, teens may share their social media passwords. Friend or not, this is a dangerous practice. Put a consequence in place for breaking this critical password rule.
  • Read App Reviews. By reading app flags, age restrictions (ranks include: everyone, low maturity, medium maturity, or high maturity) and customer reviews on an app, you will be able to discern if an app is going to be suitable for your child.
  • Gain Access. Parents should have passwords for their children’s social media accounts and passcodes to their children’s devices so they can have full access if and when it is necessary.
  • Up Your Tech Knowledge. Stay one step ahead and take the time to research the various devices and apps your kids use, as well as creating your own account. Staying knowledgeable about the newest and latest social networks is important to understand how they work and if your kids are on them.

Some of the study’s Canadian findings include:

  • 79 per cent of parents would monitor all of their children’s online activities across all of their devices if they could
  • 90 per cent of parents have talked to their children about the risks of social media
  • 73 per cent of parents follow their children on at least one social media network
  • 69 per cent of parents know the password to access some of their children’s devices and apps/social media channels
  • 27 per cent of children know other people’s passwords
  • 78 per cent of children are concerned about keeping their information private
Image: Courtesy of Intel Security

Image: Courtesy of Intel Security

NEWS RELEASE

NEW INTEL SECURITY “REALITIES OF CYBER PARENTING” STUDY INDICATES PARENTS MOST CONCERNED ABOUT CHILDREN UNKNOWINGLY INTERACTING WITH PREDATORS

Study also finds 78 per cent of Youth Concerned about Maintaining the Privacy of Their Online Personal Information

MARKHAM, ON June 3, 2015 – Intel Security today released findings from a new study “The Realities of Cyber Parenting: What Pre-teens and Teens Are Up To Online,” which examines the online behaviours and social networking habits globally of pre-teens and teens ages eight to 16 years old. The study also surveyed the concerns of parents. The 2015 research revealed that when it comes to online activity parents are most concerned (24 per cent) about their children unknowingly interacting with predators and pedophiles. This concern is warranted given 19 per cent of youth would meet or have met someone in person that they first met online, and 78 per cent of youth are concerned about maintaining the privacy of their online personal information.

Image: Courtesy of Intel Security

Image: Courtesy of Intel Security

“Parents must have frequent and open conversations with their children about their online behaviour as well as its risks and rewards,” said Brenda Moretto, Canadian consumer manager at Intel Security. “This type of transparent communication may help build stronger trust between parents and children; hopefully this will encourage children to share more information about their online interactions, and, in turn, alert their parents when they encounter any suspicious activity or conversations online.”

Online/Offline Interactions

Of the parents surveyed who use social media, about 70 per cent follow, or are connected with, their children, hoping to gain access to their interactions with followers and friends, along with the information they post. Similarly, 86 per cent of parents believe they know the types of activities their children participate in while online.

Image: Courtesy of Intel Security

Image: Courtesy of Intel Security

Protecting Personal Information

The majority of parents (63 per cent) find it important that their children receive online safety or cybersecurity training to keep their personal information and themselves protected. The survey indicates that children share their parents’ opinion, as 83 per cent say they are concerned about the privacy of their personal information and 76 per cent are learning about online safety from their parents.

Cruel Intentions

Forty-seven per cent of preteens and teens believe that other people gaining access to their personal information is the worst activity that can happen to them online. However, 25 per cent know other people’s passwords. Teens share their reasoning behind accessing these accounts: 41 per cent want to see if the person is talking to an ex while 34 per cent say they want to see private photos and 26 per cent want to dig up dirt on the other person.

Cyberbullying Causes

Seventy-six per cent of parents note they have had a discussion with their children about cyberbullying, while 44 per cent of youth indicate they have witnessed cruel behaviour on social media. Of the 27 per cent who have bullied others, 44 per cent state it was because the person was mean to them while 33 per cent mention they just did not like the person.

Other Study Highlights:

Social Media Sites

  • According to parents, the most common social media sites they think their children are on include Facebook (80 per cent), YouTube (46 per cent), WhatsApp (40 per cent), Instagram (34 per cent), Twitter (30 per cent), Skype (29 per cent) and Snapchat (19 per cent). The majority of parents (54 per cent) indicate that there is no safe place online to post photos of their child.
Image: Courtesy of Intel Security

Image: Courtesy of Intel Security

Posting for Likes

  • Fifty-seven per cent of youth share that the number of ‘likes’ or ‘favourites’ on a social media post matter to them. In fact, 26 per cent of personal photos typically get the most ‘likes’, followed by 24 per cent of selfies and 25 per cent of group photos.
Image: Courtesy of Intel Security

Image: Courtesy of Intel Security

Adult Online Friends

  • Forty-six per cent of parents are comfortable if their children are friends with adults on social media. Of this group, 96 per cent of parents approve if the person is a relative or someone they know, and 50 per cent of parents would permit their children to be friends with a teacher.

Top 5 Cyber Parenting Tips to Help Facilitate Online Safety:

  1. Connect With Your Kids. Talk casually and frequently with them about the online risks, and make sure the communication lines are open. Foster discussions around relevant news stories or cases at schools.
  2. Set Password Rules. To show camaraderie and trust, teens may share their social media passwords with friends or acquaintances. Friend or not, this is a dangerous practice. Put a consequence in place for breaking this critical password rule.
  3. Read App Reviews. By reading app flags, age restrictions (ranks include: everyone, low maturity, medium maturity, or high maturity) and customer reviews on an app, you will be able to discern if an app is going to be suitable for your child.
  4. Gain Access. Parents should have passwords for their children’s social media accounts and passcodes to their children’s devices to have full access.
  5. Up Your Tech Knowledge. Stay one step ahead and take the time to research the various devices your kids use. Stay knowledgeable about the newest and latest social networks. While you don’t have to create an account, it is important to understand how they work and if your kids are on them.

To learn more, please visit:

Quantitative Methodology

Intel Security commissioned MSI International to conduct the online survey among 8,026 children and teens ages eight to 16 and 9,017 parents worldwide. The survey was conducted in the United States, Canada, Brazil, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Japan, Australia, Singapore and India. The online interviews were conducted from April 28-May 12, 2015.

About Intel Security

McAfee is now part of Intel Security. With its Security Connected strategy, innovative approach to hardware-enhanced security, and unique McAfee Global Threat Intelligence, Intel Security is intensively focused on developing proactive, proven security solutions and services that protect systems, networks, and mobile devices for business and personal use around the world. Intel Security is combining the experience and expertise of McAfee with the innovation and proven performance of Intel to make security an essential ingredient in every architecture and on every computing platform. The mission of Intel Security is to give everyone the confidence to live and work safely and securely in the digital world. www.intelsecurity.com.

Intel, the Intel logo, McAfee and the McAfee logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

McAfee Canada, now part of Intel Security, maintains a website called “The State of Consumer and Enterprise Security in Canada” (http://mcaf.ee/canadastats ) in order to provide a one-stop shop for writers looking for information on a variety of trends and issues affecting and shaping the Canadian security landscape. Feel free to check out the McAfee Canada resource site for security information, statistics, story ideas, and access to published McAfee surveys and studies.

*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

© 2015 Intel Corporation