©2013 Absolute Software Corporation. All rights reserved.

Do You Know the Dangers Kids Face on Devices? In support of Safer Internet Day earlier this month, BBC Learning commissioned a poll about online safety showing that many parents are out of touch with the dangers kids face on their devices. In addition, the UK Safer Internet Centre released its own data, which we're combining here to give you a great picture of the dangers and issues at hand:

• Teens aged 13-16 are more vulnerable to online bullying than the 8-12 group, yet are often the most unsupervised

• 34% of young people have come into contact with content that upsets or worries them online

• 42% of primary age social network users and 9% of secondary age social network users were not sure if they had changed their privacy settings from default or didn’t know how to

• 40% of primary school students known someone who has been cyberbullied These figures show a lack of knowledge, followed up by insights about where parents are missing opportunities to lead. Think you have online safety covered for your kids? Answer these questions first:

• Do you monitor what your children are doing online? 20% of parents don't • Have you spoken with your children about what to do if something upsets them

online? 37% of parents haven't • Have you spoken with your child about cyberbullying? Sexting? Only 35% of

parents have talked about cyberbullying and 21% about sexting - most only talk about meeting strangers or protecting information

• Do you speak with your child about staying safe online? 90% of parents do • Do you supervise your child on tablets or smartphones? Most parents don't • Do you protect your tablets / smartphones as well as you do the PC's and

laptops? Most parents don't (only 40% for smartphones) Do any of these points sound like you? Are you looking to improve how you engage with your child about safe online use? The surveys showed that children of all ages are asking for more education about internet safety and that they want to know how to keep themselves and others safe online. As parents, this is a great opportunity for us to step in.

There are some great conversation starters here on how to begin positive conversations about online safety with your kids. Being there with them along the way helps you to teach them the skills they need to know and to answer questions they may have. Just like other aspects of parenting, you can't just install a program or set up controls and expect technology to do the parenting for you.

©2013 Absolute Software Corporation. All rights reserved.

For more about online safety for our youth, we encourage you to read through the resources we compiled for Safer Internet Day, covering topics such as smartphone safety for kids & teens, protecting your online reputation and more. If you have any follow-up questions about online safety for teens, drop a comment and we'd be happy to help.

About the Author

Arieanna Schweber has been a part of the Absolute Software writing team since 2007. Arieanna was Canada's first female professional blogger and has been professionally blogging since 2006, speaking at leading blogging conferences including BlogHer and Northern Voice. Arieanna has a joint degree in Business and Communications from Simon Fraser University and continues to build communities for Vancouver-based clients.

About the Company Absolute Software(@Absolutecorp) helps businesses and consumers track, manage, secure and recover mobile computers and devices using our patented persistence technology. We license the name "LoJack" from the LoJack Corporation to highlight the similarities between our consumer product, LoJack for Laptops (@LoJackforLaptop), and their stolen vehicle recovery service. Currently Absolute Software has recovered over 30,000 devices in over 100 countries around the world.