OREANDA-NEWS. March 15, 2016. Kaspersky Lab today announced the availability of Kaspersky Safe Kids, a solution for safeguarding children when they use the Internet on PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads and Android devices. The new tool includes features that allow parents to better monitor children’s online activity and physical location, prevent them from going to inappropriate websites, and regulate the amount of time they can use their computers or mobile devices.

Children as young as three years old are accessing Internet-enabled devices and many parents are finding it challenging to ensure their children, regardless of age, are safely exploring the digital world. According to a Kaspersky Lab survey, over half (52%) of respondents believe that the cyber threats their children face online are increasing. Moreover, 45 percent reported a concern that children are encountering inappropriate or explicit content online, 41 percent worry about children communicating with dangerous strangers, and equally as many (40%) fear children are sharing too much personal information online about themselves.

Kaspersky Lab created Safe Kids to help address these concerns and improve the ability of parents to create new ways for their children to use connected devices and browse the Internet. The new multi-platform software not only protects kids from viewing inappropriate content on websites and apps, but it also helps parents manage the amount of time children spend on their Internet-enabled devices. In addition, with the Safe Location feature, parents can monitor their child’s location in real-time, set up safe areas and receive automatic alerts if their child moves outside the agreed perimeter.

“Today’s kids are always connected. It’s a fact of life. And because that connection is often shielded from parents, it can make a parent feel powerless to understand what’s happening while kids are online,” says Brett Schetzsle, consumer security specialist at Kaspersky Lab. “Tools like Safe Kids give parents more options for protecting and guiding their children by developing an interactive relationship between parent and child to determine what is appropriate for their digital lives. Overall, the most effective and comprehensive protection combines the use of software like Safe Kids with other practical measures, such as keeping computers in family areas and talking to children about potential cyber threats, to help ensure kids stay safe while online,” he added.

Kaspersky Safe Kids can be downloaded for free along with the premium version for \\$14.99, which includes additional features like Safe Location, Instant Alerts and Safe Communication. The premium version is also included in the current version of Kaspersky Total Security. Safe Kids also comes with a free My Kaspersky account, making it easy for parents to manage the protection of your children via the Web, react based on the real-time notifications and adjust the protection settings for each of the devices in use, even when you are not near your children.

More information on online threats to children and advice on how to protect them can be found on the Kaspersky Lab blog: https://blog.kaspersky.com/