Woburn, MA – June 3, 2020 – Following the introduction of restrictions around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s online behavior has changed, not only among adults, but also among children. According to a new Kaspersky study, kids have spent less time playing computer games in recent months, compared to the period before the pandemic began.
Global social distancing safety measures have forced children to continue their education from home, which is mainly done by attending lessons online. Many parents also began working from home, and currently spend more time with their families during the lockdown. While being in quarantine together nearly all of the time could obviously become a challenge for both children and adults, it is important that parents understand what their youngsters are up to on their various devices.
Luckily, there is at least one less activity for parents to worry about. According to the report, based on anonymized data collected by Kaspersky Security Network (KSN)[1] on users of Kaspersky Safe Kids for Windows and macOS platforms, children have become less interested in games on personal computers during the lockdown. From March to May 2020, interest in this category consistently decreased in comparison with the first two months of the year.
Chart 1. Children’s interest in games on Windows and macOS platforms, January - May 2020
The decrease in children's interest in games is only relevant for Windows, as children are still more likely to play computer games on Windows PCs than on Macs. This is probably because most computer games are released specifically for Windows. On popular online games stores, such as Steam, there are significantly fewer games available for macOS.
“Declining interest in games on personal computers can be explained by the increased need of having to use them for other activities,” said Anna Larkina, web content analysis expert at Kaspersky. “For instance, the educational process is easier to participate in on PCs than on mobile devices. We can see that even though children spend a significant part of their time at home, they use computers wisely and don’t feel the need to dive into video games.”
To ensure your child has positive gaming experiences during the pandemic, Kaspersky has the following recommendations:
- Encourage children to tell you if they are experiencing anything that makes them uncomfortable while they are playing games.
- Finding time to play computer games with your child will help strengthen your relationship and increase your understanding of what your child does in their free time.
- Install Kaspersky Safe Kids, a solution that allows you to monitor what your children do online across a range of devices but without encroaching on their personal space. The solution also offers useful advice on how to help children behave safely online.
To learn more about Kaspersky’s findings on children’s safety, the full research report is available to read here.
[1] Kaspersky Secure Network (KSN) is a complex distributed infrastructure developed by Kaspersky and dedicated to intelligently processing cybersecurity-related data streams from millions of voluntary participants around the world
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