New research shows that 95% of parents in APAC are concerned about their kids’ safety on social media
Kid-centric digital media company TotallyAwesome has conducted research on the digital behaviour of kids in APAC, analysing online media consumption, device usage, and content and brand preferences.
With 90% of kids on social media, safety is at the heart of parents’ concerns
Most widely-used social media platforms age-gate at age 13 or older. However, TotallyAwesome´s research shows that 90% of kids between 4 and 12 claim to be using platforms such as YouTube Facebook and Instagram*.
As a result, a staggering number of parents have expressed their concerns with regards to their kids’ safety on social media. In APAC, 95% of the panel recognised that the social media presence of kids might represent a risk:
- 68% were afraid that their kids might come across inappropriate content,
- Over 56% were worried about the potential negative influence,
- Over 47% fear cyber bullying,
- Over 34% were concerned about their general well-being*.
Parents from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam were found to be the most worried with results reaching 98%.
Even more concerning is that 68% of these parents had claimed that their kids had already experienced real issues online: 33% stated that their kids had already been exposed to inappropriate content and 24% had fallen victim to bad influence*.
Kids’ online presence is on the rise
These rising concerns are the inevitable result of the growing presence of kids online. Around the world, more than 175,000 children go online for the first time each day. Beyond the fact that 1 in 3 internet users today is a child, time spent online – and on social media – is also on the rise: TotallyAwesome’s research shows that a child in APAC will spend an average of 2 hours online per weekday, and 2.5 hours per day on weekends*.
Quan Nguyen, TotallyAwesome’s CEO, explained that, “We had expected to see concerns amongst parents regarding their kids´ digital safety – this is a global trend. However, the results were much higher than we initially anticipated. It is important for us to seek feedback from both parents and children to make sure that our solutions, such as PopJam, our kid-safe content platform, remain relevant and help kids to stay safe in the digital space.”
TotallyAwesome’s annual Kids’ Digital Insights Study was conducted across 14 markets – including Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand – with a sample of over 4900 kids (aged 4 to 16) and families.
TotallyAwesome has also investigated kid influencer trends, content and brand preferences, as well as kids’ buying power. For more information on the APAC kids´ digital insights, contact info@totallyawesome.tv.
*TotallyAwesome APAC Kids Digital Insight, n= kids between 4-16 yo, n= 4935; Markets: AU, ID, IN, MY, NZ, PH, SG, TH, VN, HK, JP, TW, KO, CH. Copyright TotallyAwesome, October 2018.
