99% urban kids use Internet, 54% have weak password: Study

The survey noted that 54% children share their passwords with their friends, family or relatives

As much as 98.8 per cent of children in urban areas use Internet and 54.6 per cent have weak password, making them vulnerable to cyber criminals, says a survey.

The survey was conducted across 13 cities in the country, covering 2,700 students by Telenor India.

"A whopping 98.8 per cent of children in urban areas are using Internet and 54.6 per cent of those surveyed use 'weak passwords' that is passwords with only alphabets or numbers and which are less than 8 characters," Telenor India's WebWise report said.

The survey noted that 54.82 per cent children share their passwords with their friends, family or relatives, hence creating a threat to their digital security.

The WebWise report found that 83.5 per cent students aged between 6 to 18 years are active on social media, and hence are likely to have a higher threat perception.

As per the study, over 35 per cent children have experienced their account being hacked while 15.74 per cent said that they have received inappropriate messages.

"Though India is home to the second largest Internet population in the world, majority of users, specially our children, are exposed to cyber threats due to weak and easy- to-guess passwords," Telenor India Communications Chief Executive Officer Sharad Mehrotra said.

Post the WebWise workshops, 81.9 per cent children said that they will reconsider to change their passwords and 84.26 per cent children agreed that they will not share their passwords with anyone apart from their parents, the report said.

"On the World Password Day, we should understand the significance of using strong passwords and secure our identity in this digital world," Mehrotra said.