Children are spending nearly as many hours on the internet as adults.

Today, the internet is an essential part of our lives, as we can find and know everything with just one click. However, what a few decades ago was mostly associated with teenagers and young adults now encompasses all of modern society. This, in turn, raises questions about how much time we spend online, especially children. Keep reading and learn the dangers and care about the time children spend on the internet.

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With a huge range of games, cartoons and other forms of entertainment present on the network, children end up being very attracted to this world, causing them to spend hours and hours small screens. However, this is a fact that is worrying many parents.

What does the study say?

In a survey conducted by the largest virtual security company in the world, Kaspersky, when interviewing Brazilian parents, a very interesting question was observed. According to the survey, there is a relationship between the time parents use the devices with the time their children spend on the devices.

In this sense, when asked how much time they spend online per day, 91% of Brazilians said three hours or more, with 86% of children also spending the same amount of time online. With that, such information points to the propensity of the little ones to reproduce the customs of the adults.

Thus, the results of paternal habits also influence the children in other routine activities. For example, children whose parents frequently use devices during meals can spend up to 39 minutes more connected.

“In our experience, the use of digital media by parents and families is always an important topic. Many parents are convinced that it is enough to clearly regulate how long children use these media and control the type of content they have access to. But instead of worrying about effective punishments, they should first reduce their own consumption,” say therapists Birgitt Hölzel and Stefan Ruzas from the Munich clinic Liebling + Schatz.

Importance of child safety on the internet

As much as such data reveal that there is a direct relationship between children's internet time and their parents, it is still of paramount importance to think about how to protect minors from the dangers of the web. Therefore, it is essential to use some processes to make the navigation of the little ones safer.

To help with this function, Kaspersky recommends the following tips:

• “Invest more time in communicating with children about cybersecurity measures. Try to pay attention to your own habits: do you use your smartphone when eating or chatting? See if there is a pattern that children repeat or if they react differently when you put the phone down”;
• “Think about downloading parental control apps and talking about it with the kids. It is important to explain how these applications work and why they are needed to ensure digital security”;
• “Ask children not to agree to any privacy settings on their own and ask their parents for help. Adults should also make a habit of reading all privacy agreements.”