When it comes to the Internet, you might be tempted to think that countries that boast more reliable infrastructure benefit from better online security. Well, that proved to be just a guess.
Researchers at VPN service provider Surfshark have found that some of the countries that offer the best digital quality of life actually struggle to protect their children online.
The new Surfshark report, published to coincide with this year’s Safer Internet Day on February 6, adds to a recent investigation in which Surfshark documented more than 1,700 websites with unreported child sexual abuse content in the EU alone It is something to do.
The conundrum of children’s online safety
“In an age where children leave digital footprints before they walk, ensuring online travel safety is not only a responsibility, but also an important obligation,” Agneska Sablovskaja, Principal Researcher at Surfshark, told TechRadar. Ta.
In this light, the researchers decided to see if there was a correlation between improved internet quality and children’s online security.
To that end, they launched the Children’s Online Safety Index (COSI), a country-level index that maps improvements in children’s online safety measures, the KidsRights Index, which measures how children’s rights are respected around the world; and compare data from your own digital metrics. Global rankings for quality of life and overall digital wellbeing.
What they discovered was in stark contrast to what appeared on the surface.
Countries with high standards of digital life often have higher levels of online safety for children. However, Sablovskaya explained that this does not necessarily lead to better protection for children in the end. “In some countries, particularly in Europe, a high quality of digital life does not guarantee significant online protection for children,” she added.
Of the 19 worst-performing countries, 14 are in Europe.Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, estonia, Finland, Greece, latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerlandand ukraine. Three Asian countries (Israel, bahrainand Kazakhstan), along with two South American countries, are included due to the lack of effective child protection online. Chile and Uruguay.
Experts say this scenario will worsen as technological innovations increasingly expose the most vulnerable to new and evolving threats.
Commenting on this point, Dr. Yoohyun Park, founder of the DQ Institute, which is behind the global COSI index, said: “Today, digital technologies are pervasive, with the rapid deployment of generative AI, the Metaverse, and pervasive devices like XR (augmented reality). There is little discussion of the harmful effects of global warming. As with tackling the issue of climate change, concerted global action is essential and cannot be delayed any longer.”
Parents should ensure that their children, especially the youngest, are in control of the content they access online. Security software providers that offer tools such as VPNs and antivirus solutions have recently improved their parental control features to address this issue.
However, for Sablovskaya, it is time for the government to introduce stronger solutions. She said, “In order to protect children in the digital space, systematic measures are essential not only in the immediate environment of families and schools, but also at the national and global levels.”
