New Kaspersky Safe Kids provides enhanced YouTube monitoring and extended iOS functionality

Woburn, MA – April 21, 2022 – Today Kaspersky announced an expanded set of features in the new version of Kaspersky Safe Kids, giving parents more options to safely facilitate children’s digital interests and relationships with gadgets. Updated YouTube monitoring now enables users to check exactly which videos their kids have watched on the platform. Additionally, Kaspersky Safe Kids now provides adults with extended web-filtering and screen time functionalities for iOS, which allows them to monitor how long their kids have been using their devices. 

According to a Kaspersky survey, most children (57%) get their first gadget when they’re between six and nine years old. Many adults end up seeking effective tools to help their kids form healthy use habits and to manage and control the time they spend on gadgets. Another recent Kaspersky study showed that YouTube is the most popular platform among kids, causing many parents to want to make sure that their children don’t have access to inappropriate content on the platform.

Kaspersky Safe Kids’ YouTube monitoring feature now provides YouTube history reports[1], showing what specific videos children watched, so adults can oversee their kids’ interests and hobbies. This is in addition to the existing option that provides visibility into kids’ YouTube search queries and the ability to block the results of age-inappropriate searches. This functionality is available in browsers on Windows, iOS and Android devices, as well as inside the official YouTube app on Android phones and tablets.

Recently, Apple gave companies the right to use the Screen Time API, thanks to which Kaspersky has been able to enrich the web-filtering functionality and device control on iOS. Web filtering allows adults to restrict access to websites based on categories and create browsing history reports. This option can also create lists of permitted or banned sites and even block access to all websites, apart from those specified by parents. It is available for browsers such as Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Yandex, Opera, duckduckgo and Aloha.

Safe Kids has also made an important improvement to the device management functionality on iOS[2]. Previously, due to the system’s limitations, screen limit warning messages could only be shown to the child using the device. With the updated version, when children exceed the allowed screen time limit, their gadget is blocked. Kaspersky Safe Kids still allows the operation of a device’s critical phone app to maintain the essential capacity to stay in touch with loved ones.

Full functionality is available for PC, Mac, and Android-based gadgets. For iOS devices with iOS 15.0+, web filtering and screen time management are available via the Apple Family account. For iOS 12.0-14.0 gadgets, web filtering is only available via the Kaspersky Safe Kids browser, and device use control is implemented via the “Time is up” alert, which shows on a child’s screen if they exceed their time limit.

Kaspersky Safe Kids has recently received several awards. AV-TEST awarded the product with an Approved Parental Control Software certificate in 2021, a product categorization level with continuously increasing standards. At MWC 2022, Kaspersky Safe Kids was awarded the best parental-control app by Make Use Of [3], a large online technology publication with more than 24 million unique users per month.

“Modern children cannot imagine their lives without smartphones, and this is completely normal,” said Marina Titova, vice president, consumer product marketing at Kaspersky. “Today’s parental control apps are mostly designed to help adults protect their kids from various inappropriate content and help them build their little ones’ relationship with gadgets as they see fit. In addition, such apps can be used to develop healthy digital habits from an early age.”

To help kids spend time on the Internet securely, you can:

• Spend more time communicating with kids about online safety measures. Try paying attention to your own habits - do you use your smartphone when eating or chatting? See if there is a pattern of your kids following your habits - do they react in a different way when you put your phone away?
• Ask your child not to agree to any privacy settings on their own and to ask for help from you instead. Adults should get into the habit of reading all privacy agreements.
• Consider downloading parental control apps and discussing this topic with your child to explain how such apps work and why they’re needed to stay safe online.
• Involve yourself in your children’s online activities from an early age, so that this is the established norm and you can mentor them on online safety practices.
• Make talks about cybersecurity more enjoyable and interesting by discussing it with your child through games and other entertainment formats.

About Kaspersky

Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company founded in 1997. Kaspersky’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into innovative security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and a number of specialized security solutions and services to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky technologies and we help 240,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at usa.kaspersky.com.

Media Contact

Sawyer Van Horn

sawyer.vanhorn@Kaspersky.com

(781) 503-1866

[1] This feature collects information about YouTube views in the browser on the child's Windows and Android devices, and parents can view the results in the ‘reports’ section of the Android app in ‘parent’ mode.

List of supported browsers on Windows – Microsoft Edge Chromium, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Yandex Browser.

[2] Due to restrictions with the iOS operating system, only age-appropriate limitations are possible when managing app usage.