This is what kids are really doing on the internet

Kaspersky has officially released its Growing Up Online – Connected Kids survey with the results showing (perhaps unsurprisingly) that boys and girls aged 8-16 behave very differently on the Internet.

Girls like to use smartphones, while boys prefer computers and game consoles.

Boys are generally more likely to be addicted to computer games – they cite them more often in their list of daily online activities, while girls opt for communication on social networks and instant messengers.

When it comes to their preferred method of communication, girls cite calls and messages more often, which is unsurprising considering their love of smartphones.

Boys are also more likely than girls to think they know how to use the Internet and how to protect themselves online.

At the same time, according to the survey, boys are less inhibited on the Internet than girls: they provide lots of personal information on social networking sites and pretend to be older than they really are.

They also try to bypass parental controls on their devices and hide information about online activity from their parents. And there is something to hide – according to their own admission, boys are more likely than girls to access content that is inappropriate for children.

That means boys are typically the ones requiring the most supervision.

Parents need to use up-to-date parental controls that can’t be bypassed in order to safeguard their madcap boys from unwanted or dangerous information, for example, games that are not intended for children.