Parents in APAC concerned social media a risk for children

With 90% of kids on social media, safety is at the heart of parents’ concerns, said a study by child-centric digital media company TotallyAwesome. Parents from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam were found to be the most worried with results reaching 98%.The agency has conducted research on the digital behavior of kids in APAC, analysing online media consumption, device usage, and content and brand preferences. The research showed that a child in APAC will spend an average of two hours online per weekday, and two and a half hours per day on weekends.While the most widely-used social media platforms age-gate at 13 or older, TotallyAwesome´s research shows that 90% of kids between 4 and 12 claim to be using platforms such as YouTube Facebook and Instagram. As a result, a staggering number of parents have expressed their concerns with regards to their kids’ safety on social media.In APAC, 95% of those interviewed recognised that the social media presence of kids might represent a risk. 68% of parents said they were afraid that their kids might come across inappropriate content, and over 56% were worried about the potential negative influence. Cyber bullying was also a concern for over 47% of respondents and over 34% were concerned about their general well-being.Even more concerning is that 68% of these parents had claimed that their kids had already experienced real issues online: 33% stated that their kids had already been exposed to inappropriate content and 24% had fallen victim to bad influence. These rising concerns are the inevitable result of the growing presence of kids online. Around the world, more than 175,000 children go online for the first time each day. Beyond the fact that 1 in 3 internet users today is a child.TotallyAwesome’s annual Kids’ Digital Insights Study was conducted across 14 markets - including Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand - with a sample of over 4900 kids (aged 4 to 16) and families.(Photo courtesy: 123RF) Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-USZH-CNX-NONEMicrosoftInternetExplorer4