Kids Safety
For years Kaspersky Lab’s products have incorporated the Parental Control module. Last year our efforts aimed at protecting kids forged into a separate product now known as Safe Kids.
We have been asked on multiple occasions to explain the difference between Safe Kids and the Parental Control capability in our consumer products. Of course, some of their features overlap, but there are some fundamental differences as well.
Cross-platform support
Kaspersky Lab’s survey showed 80% of families who use special software to protect their kids on the Internet install these programs solely on one device – a PC in most cases. Kids’ smartphones are protected only in 10% of families surveyed. However, our data proves that 70% of kids prefer smartphones for Internet surfing, while 80% of young respondents consider their smartphone a primary means of connecting to the Internet.
That’s one of the key differences of Kaspersky Safe Kids from Parental Control in Kaspersky Internet Security: in addition to PCs and laptops, Safe Kids can be installed on your kid’s mobile devices (both Android and iOS).
Flexible settings
There is another difference between these methods of protecting kids, which has to do with the flexibility of settings. The Parental Control feature is enabled by parents directly on the kid’s PC, meaning the parents have to physically be at the computer. In Safe Kids, the settings are available through their personal account at my.kaspersky.com. It makes the product more flexible, and the restrictions can be edited remotely – for instance, in the situation when the parents are at work, while the kid needs to whitelist a certain website he or she would need to do their homework.
Moreover, this method unifies settings for all devices your kid uses.
Clear reports
Another key advantage of Kaspersky Safe Kids is the visibility of the kid’s online activities and interests for parents. The program provides reports on online activities and notifies parents on their kid’s attempts to visit restricted websites or search for dangerous information. Among other things, this enables parents to proactively address a serious problem in their child’ life and provides a useful insight into topics they would need to openly discuss with their child.
New features
Support for mobile devices led to creation of new features, which were either impossible or unnecessary on a PC. First, the SMS/call monitoring feature provides information on your kid’s acquaintances. Second, a geolocation feature is used to track your kid’s device (in most cases, kids won’t ever let go of their devices, so this can also be a means of locating the kid themselves). So, it helps to protect your child both in the real and virtual world.
Besides, Safe Kids enables parents to monitor their kid’s activities on social networks without creating their own social network profile by using their personal account at my.kaspersky.com. This feature helps to view their timeline and friends list.
In other words, Kaspersky Safe Kids is more than just a monitoring tool: it is designed to help parents raise their digitally native kids, who are permanently attached to their devices day and night.
