Kids taking more interest in online shopping — report

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino children’s interest in online shopping is on the rise with more visits being made to online retail sites,  according to global security company Kaspersky.

Based on Kaspersky’s global parental control report, 16.04 percent of Filipino kids attempted to or actually visited an online retail site from 2018 to 2019, up from just 0.74 percent from 2017 to 2018.

The same data showed that online retail shops placed third among the websites visited by Filipino kids.

Software, audio and video got the top spot with 42.04 percent, followed by internet communications media or social networks and chats with 29.17 percent.

Globally, the number of children’s visits to e-commerce sites grew to nine percent from just two percent in the last 12 months.

Among online retailers, Kaspersky said children around the world were mostly interested in AliExpress, Amazon and Ebay.

While children’s rising interest in e-commerce sites is a global trend, Kaspersky said the biggest growth was seen in Russia and the Commonwealth Independent States at 23 percent.

This was followed by North America at 15 percent, Europe and the Middle East at 11 percent, and Asia and Latin America at nine percent.

As the increasing visits to retailers’ pages may not necessarily mean children are actually making purchases on the site, but could be just looking for items to put on their wish list, Kaspersky said there is no need for parents to forbid their kids from such activities.

Instead, parents are advised to allow their kids to continue to spend time online, but discuss with them the possible risks and precautions.

As part of the discussion with their kids, parents can warn their kids about the risks of using unreliable public Wi-Fi networks for online payments as hotspots can be used to steal personal information.

Parents can also set a rule that online purchases can only be done by their kids with their assistance, as well as instruct kids to avoid sharing any personal details with retail personnel, whether via phone or online, as well as with anyone outside the family.

In addition, parents are advised to restrict children from saving payment information on their devices which, if stolen or lost, could fall into the wrong hands.

Parents are likewise encouraged to enable parental control functionality and use specialized software that will allow them to monitor their children’s online activity.

“The internet offers a lot of opportunities for kids, and we are now seeing many children becoming a key audience for online retailers. Whether they spend money or not, they need support and guidance from adults who can help them avoid inadvertently coming across inappropriate content, suffering money loss or unnecessarily sharing their personal data,” Anna Larkina, web content analysis expert at Kaspersky said.

“While there are certain things that parental control software can do, it is vital that adults are aware of what their children are doing online and ensure they are armed with all the facts to do it safely. This could be a perfect opportunity for parents to spend time with their kids, creating and sharing wish lists while teaching them some important things about how the internet works,” Larkina said.