According to the Growing Up Online – Connected Kids, conducted by Kaspersky Lab and the “iconKids&Youth” institute, boys and girls aged 8-16 behave very differently online, which means that different approaches are required to keep them safe.
This is useful information for parents who want to protect their children from online threats. 
Girls like to use smartphones, while boys prefer computers and game consoles. Boys are generally more likely to be addicted to computer games: they mention them more often in the list of their daily online activities, while girls choose communication via social networks and instant messengers.
Regarding their preferred method of communication, girls most often mention phone calls and text messages, which is not surprising considering their love of smartphones.
Perhaps due to their social nature, girls tend to choose family members or friends more often as a source of information, while boys rely more on the Internet for news. Boys are also more likely than girls to think they know how to use the Internet and how to protect themselves when online.
At the same time, according to the research, boys are less shy on the Internet than girls: they provide a lot of their personal information on social networking sites and pretend to be older than they really are. They also try to bypass parental control programs on their devices and hide information about their online activity from their parents. And there is something to hide, by their own admission, as boys compared to girls are more likely to have access to content unsuitable for minors.
"The research suggests that parents of boys should pay close attention to what their boys are doing online. They should use up-to-date parental control programs that cannot be bypassed to protect their impulsive boys from unwanted or dangerous information, such as games that are not intended for children."
"In the meantime, parents of girls should pay more attention to the people their daughters communicate with online. Social networks and messengers are often used by dubious characters to fraudulently gain a child's trust," advises Andrei Mochola, Head of Consumer Business at Kaspersky Lab.
More information and advice on protecting children online is available at kids.kaspersky.com. Information on a technical solution to these problems is available on the KasperskySafeKids.
Kaspersky Lab also provides students and young professionals with the opportunity to develop solutions that keep children safe online. More information about the international Talent Lab competition can be found on the dedicated website academy.kaspersky.com/talentlab.
