Minors with access to inappropriate content: this is how they bypass parental controls and put their privacy at risk

12 Jul. (Portaltic/EP) –

The vacation Summer months mean more free time for children and young people, who take advantage of these months to spend more time on devices – surfing the Internet, interacting through social networks – which they can use for purposes not recommended for their age by evading the parental controls that have been established to protect their privacy and integrity.

Lack of awareness of the risks to which they may be exposed and lack of training in cybersecurity are two of the reasons why malicious attacks increase during the hottest months, when cybercriminals carry out Increasingly sophisticated malicious campaigns and with disastrous results for the privacy of minors.

And it is that every time The age of initiation in the use of electronic terminals is being brought forward -47 percent of Spanish children have their first contact with an Internet-connected device before the age of seven, according to a recent report by Kaspersky-, which leads them to unleash their ingenuity to find ways to access the Internet and other applications without their parents’ permission.

The most common and easiest way to browse without permission from the Parents and guardians it is precisely, use your own terminalstaking advantage of the fact that these do not usually have content restrictions. In this way, they only need to know the pattern or PIN number of the device to open the mobile and access its services.

Once inside, they can therefore access content that is inappropriate for their age, such as topics related to violence, sexuality or explicit language, which are generally not limited by the appropriate privacy settings. In this way, minors can expose personal information to strangers, which could lead to situations such as cyberbullying.

He Wifi This is another element that can endanger the safety of children and minors. The lack of connectivity sometimes generates anxiety that leads them to want to connect to any WiFi network they have at hand, such as public networks. These generally do not have the appropriate security measures that are in place at home or in the office, which makes it easier for cybercriminals to intercept sensitive data and promise the security of connected devices.

These networks They also do not usually have an encryption system.so that malicious actors can more easily access the data of these minors, such as their email addresses or social media profiles, which they can steal to gain remote control over them.

The so-called alternative accounts are also problematic. These are accounts set up to not show activity to parents on devices, games and social networks, allowing children to browse without restrictions or access potentially dangerous content without adult supervision.

Not only that, but these users also use something as common as Incognito Mode – designed to protect privacy – to hide their browsing history and participate in chats with strangers or visit websites that their parents would have restricted them from.

‘APPS’ THAT ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM

With all this, vault apps are recurrent among minors, who use them to bypass parental controls. These are services designed to hide and secure files, data, messages and calls. through authentication methods such as codes, passwords or biometric data.

In order not to attract attention, these apps use false utilities as decoys, so they can look like any other platform – for example, a calculator, with numeric keys and signs – although in reality they give access to all the files they hide once the secret key is entered.

Some of these apps sync to view files stored on your device or Chromebookdevices that are also not alien to this type of platform, which in some cases incorporate browsers. This means that those who use them for purposes that are not recommended, for example to consume content not suitable for certain ages, do not have to search in Incognito Mode.

These vault apps are difficult to detect because they are hidden among the rest of the installed applications and can sometimes only be discovered using forensic analysis tools or by analyzing the device’s activity logs.

For this reason, cybersecurity firms such as Eset recommend that adults show more interest in their children’s online habits, as well as the use they make of their devices, something that is possible with open, two-way communication with minors.

Only if children place their trust in their parents and are confident enough to explain to them how to use the tools at their disposal is it possible to neutralize a possible future attack, as well as the risks to which they are exposed.