Majority of Canadian parents trust their kids to go online unmonitored: Survey
By Rhythm Sachdeva
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TORONTO (CTV Network) — As more children under the age of 18 use the internet, a majority of Canadian parents trust them to go online without supervision, but have concerns about their safety, according to a new global survey.
According to the 2022 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report released Tuesday, 69 per cent of surveyed Canadian parents say they “trust their children to browse the internet unmonitored,” and 86 per cent say it is “absolutely essential” to teach children about cyber safety.
“While there’s no foolproof solution, having frequent conversations with your kids about cyber safety, using a password manager to safely store complex and secure passwords and being inherently skeptical about anything you come across online are steps all families can take to live their digital lives safely,” said Darren Shou, head of technology with NortonLifeLock, in a release.
The online survey, conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of the U.S-based software company, polled 12,034 adults in 12 countries spanning Europe, North America and Asia.
In Canada, 221 of the 1,003 respondents were parents of children under the age of 18.
According to the survey, 83 per cent of parents think it’s somewhat probable that their kids would share personal information about themselves or members of their family online, with 42 per cent saying it’s “very or extremely likely.”
Online security threats remain a growing concern among Canadians, as more fall prey to online scams. For example, after the Canada-wide Rogers outage, the company said that many customers were receiving “phishing” scams claiming to offer credits on behalf of Rogers through an online link.
Ninety-five per cent of surveyed Canadian parents said that it is more necessary than ever for parents to speak to their children about cyber safety, while 75 per cent think it is difficult to keep their kids safe when they are online.
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Sonja Puzic
