With so much easy access to the internet and people using it to the peak in this pandemic has become a threat. So many people including working professionals as well as children from business meetings to either using Instagram or Tik Tok there has been a rush in the amount of internet usage. This has created a very high risk especially for the students who are more prone to using the internet giving a wide scope for hackers to do their business in the market.
VenatKrishnapur Vice President, Engineering and Managing Director, McAfee India has given us an overview of this internet bullying or crimes. He also talks about how to educate this generation, especially youth about cybercrime and how to work on their safety.
McAfee is the global computer security software company that offers cloud defence, data centre, cybersecurity solutions, and many other services. Venat comes with a high experience of 34 plus years in this industry.
Image: McAfee
He said “start social media hygiene talks” with the kids as early as possible. Where you can talk about kid-friendly browsers, apps with the surety that software security is their which decreases the risk of hackers.
He also talks very relevantly about how easy it is to prey on the children for online child sexual abuses and cyber-crimes. Where he adds that it is very easy to attract the children with gifts in exchange for their personal information. As children, they don’t have the prior knowledge of the risk involved in these scams.
According to the 2018 McAfee Survey, it tells that paedophilia, stalking, kidnapping, and cyberbullying were some of the highest threats in India associated with the Child’s online footprint.
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Cyber-grooming is a term that explains that parents should be quite aware of the online contacts and conversations their children are having on social sites. Which will keep the child safe from the predator which is looking to pull sensitive information from the children through online sources?
Venat says a very interesting thing that “the parents need to move from a mindset of protecting to prepare. Education about cybersecurity is of extreme importance as this generation spends a lot of their time on social networking sites, making friends, chatting, etc. The parents should spend time with their young ones helping them learn privacy and safety tools. The internet does not have a delete button says Krishnapur so tell your children that if something ever goes up on the internet it can come back anytime to you in the form of threat. Therefore, be aware of what you are sharing on the internet.
