Security Company AVG Urges Parents To Take More Proactive Role in Children's Online Activity

Security company AVG said 72 percent of U.S. parents with children aged 3-17 say their children received their first connected mobile device before seventh grade, and one in two “connected” children received his or her first device before first grade, citing findings from a poll conducted by Harris for AVG. Parents are “on the right track” in talking about Internet security with their K-12 children, but they “can do better,” AVG said. Some 72 percent of parents with children aged 3-17 have proactively spoken to their children about the dangers of the Internet, but only 56 percent know the passwords to their children’s connected devices, said AVG. Forty-one percent have installed a parental block on the mobile devices, it said. Some 51 percent of parents said they check their child’s activity at least weekly and one in five monitored the activities less than once a month or not at all, said the survey. "The numbers suggest that many parents are not engaged in knowing what their children are really doing on their devices,” said Tony Anscombe, AVG senior security evangelist. The security company recommends parents have an ongoing discussion on the potential dangers of the Internet with their children and use parental features and other safety measures on the devices. It also encouraged parents to be sure devices are protected from malware. The survey was done online in the U.S. by Harris Poll Aug. 5-12 among 893 parents of children ages 3-17.