Kids searching internet for drugs, alcohol more than porn

Children globally now communicate, play and access adult content via internet less than they did a year ago and search for websites with information about drugs, alcohol and tobacco more, a new report said on Monday.

According to Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, children opened communication websites such as social media, messengers or emails in 61 per cent of cases, compared to 67 per cent in the previous 12 months (May 2015 to April 2016).

"Games have fallen to nine per cent from 11 per cent and adult websites now account for 1.2 per cent instead of 1.5 per cent," the report found.

Meanwhile, visits to pages containing information about drugs, alcohol and tobacco now account for 14 per cent of detections, though the figure was only nine per cent during the previous reporting period.

Children now only use computers to visit websites that have no mobile app equivalent or that are easier to view on larger screens.

"This may explain why the share of communication websites opened on computers is falling while the proportion of pages with 'Alcohol, tobacco, narcotics' content is growing," said Anna Larkina, Web-content Analysis Expert at Kaspersky Lab.

The decrease in the share of games doesn't mean children are playing computer games less; they tend to choose a few sites and stick to them, but can spend a lot of time playing them.

The report also stated that the chattiest children live in the Arab world where 89 per cent of detections were related to communication websites. North American kids use computers for this purpose least of all -- just 28 per cent of cases.

"Sites about narcotics, alcohol and tobacco are most popular in North America (32 per cent), Oceania (30 per cent) and Western Europe (26 per cent), while children from the Arab world are least likely to open these sites -- just three per cent of cases," the report noted.

The computer games category is most popular in North America (20 per cent), Oceania (20 per cent), Western Europe (18 per cent) and least popular in the Arab world (two per cent).

--IANS

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