Let’s discover our child’s digital world: Part IV

LAST week, I shared how my one-on-one time with my 12-year-old boy was able to open my thoughts on the positive sides of video and online games. I also shared how enlightening it was to discover that screentime can actually be a great socio-emotional learning (SEL) tool, as it became a good way to practice the important 21stcentury learning skill of communication. In this, my last installment on this topic, my hope is to leave you with the latest information on the digital interests of children today. My hope is for us parents to take more initiative in connecting with our children in their digital world.

A new Kaspersky Safe Kids study has revealed the most-viewed in children’s interests between March and May 2022. Popular events such as the Academy Awards were trending and there were also some changes in the gaming segment, including the growing popularity of that creepy The Backrooms game. In the music field, plenty of attention was on PSY for the track “That That,” released in collaboration with BTS star SUGA.

Children have been closely following all these events and developments, which have influenced their interests. Kaspersky analyzed anonymized data voluntarily provided by Kaspersky Safe Kids users, such as search queries on the most popular Android applications and web site categories.

As for popular events, Will Smith’s infamous Oscars slap globally riveted kids’ attention and was widely discussed throughout the spring. In addition to this, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s divorce trial, and speculation about Spiderman celebrity couple, Tom Holland and Zendaya were trending pop-culture topics. Unexpectedly, children also frequently searched for “UWU,” which is an emoticon depicting a cute face.

The gaming category also saw some slight changes over the spring. One interesting case is The Backrooms game, which has become popular among children in recent months. It is a creepypasta (referring to horror-related content on the Internet) that puts the player in an endless maze of randomly generated office rooms. It includes several levels that gamers must explore. In addition, the game Among US has been trending downwards for the past few months, with kids losing almost all interest in it.

This spring children were drawn to the categories of software, audio and video (43.6 percent); Internet communication (17.2 percent); and e-commerce (16.1 percent). The most popular apps on Android included Youtube (31.6 percent), Tiktok (19 percent) and Whatsapp (18.3 percent). For Windows programs, in first place with a huge lead was Google Chrome (44.7 percent); Microsoft’s browser Edge managed to get 12.6 percent; and in third place was messaging platform Discord with a share of 9.8 percent.

“New trends and events in popular culture have a significant impact on kids’ interests. Children’s passions change rapidly and for parents to better understand their little ones and build close relationships with them, it can be useful to explore their interests and hobbies together. Modern parental control apps are one way to help with this,” says Anna Larkina, web content analysis expert at Kaspersky, a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company.

Last, Kaspersky has these recommendations for parents:

n Involve yourself in your children’s online activities from an early age, so that this is the established norm, and you can then mentor them on online safety practices

n Consider downloading parental control apps and discussing this topic with your child to explain how such apps work and why they’re needed to stay safe online

n Make talks about cybersecurity more enjoyable and interesting by discussing it with your child through games and other entertaining formats

n Spend more time communicating with your kids about online safety measures. Try paying attention to your own habits. Do you use your smartphone when eating or chatting? See if there are any patterns of your kids mimicking your habits? Do they react in a different way when you put your phone away?

n Ask your child not to agree to any privacy settings on their own and to ask for help from you instead. Adults should get into the habit of reading all privacy agreements. n