Indentation control: Demand for software for monitoring children's online activity increased by 20%

Parents began to monitor children's online activity. The number of such programs that adults install on a child's gadget has increased by 20% over the year, participants in the communications and cybersecurity market told Izvestia. Software for parental control, location detection of minors, filters, antiviruses and much more are in demand, they say. Adults can be understood, experts say: in just six months, the number of fraudulent attacks on children and adolescents has increased 1.5 times.

How to protect children from cyber threats

Representatives of telecom companies, as well as participants in the information security market, told Izvestia that the demand for parental control software for children's online activities has increased significantly in the Russian Federation over the past year. Thus, according to the digital service provider <url>, from April 2024 to April 2025, the number of the company's customers who connected such services increased by 20%.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Anna Selina

"The majority of adults (84%) set up a smartphone before giving it to a child: they delete some applications or activate child mode in them, install antiviruses, and regulate the privacy of social media accounts. Parental control programs are also increasingly being installed: in 66% of cases, to restrict access to unwanted content, in 62% — to track location, in 60% — to prohibit downloading applications without permission, in 54% — to manage screen time, and in 52% — to check the history of search queries.", — listed in the materials of " <url>".

Despite the fact that, according to Kaspersky Lab, two thirds of parents want their children to spend more time without gadgets, adults do not advocate the complete abolition of electronic devices for them. Among other things, this is due to the fact that many parents communicate with their children online. In 71% of cases, adults contact a child to find out their location, in 60% — to discuss household issues, in 49% — to find out about their well—being, in 45% - to exchange news, in 32% — to send a joke or meme.

— The use of parental control programs is an important first step in protecting a child in a digital environment. And the demand for such solutions is really growing. Among the reasons is the increasingly young age of children who are being bought their own gadgets," confirms Andrey Sidenko, head of online child safety at Kaspersky Lab.

Photo: Global Look Press/Jaap Arriens

The demand for such products in the first half of 2025 increased by 20% compared to the same period in 2024, and it is driven by legislative initiatives, increased online risks, and increased general anxiety among adults about children's pastimes, said Igor Bederov, founder of the Internet Search company, NTI SafeNet market expert.

— Parents actively use multi-level solutions, combining the built-in functions of devices and third-party applications. These are children's bank cards with a controlled limit and expense notifications, specialized software for monitoring the child's activity, as well as built—in operating system functions," he said.

Over the past two months, the number of users of MTS's Membrana Kids service has increased by 70%, said Arseniy Epov, director of the Safe Space for Children service.

— High interest in the service is associated with increased threats in the digital environment, such as cyberbullying, an increase in the number of banned online resources, and fraud. Another reason for the interest in the service is the summer holidays. During this period, children are more often unattended, so parents try to limit their time spent with a smartphone," he says.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Anna Selina

Parents are increasingly purchasing various cybersecurity products and services to protect children from online threats, unwanted content, digital harassment and other cyber threats, agrees Yana Avezova, senior analyst at the Positive Technologies research group. Among such products, she highlights software solutions with the "parental control" function that allow you to monitor the activity of a child or teenager on the Internet, filter content (by age and by category), block unwanted pages or videos, and monitor behavior in messengers and social networks. Antiviruses, phishing filters, warnings about dangerous resources, programs and devices for tracking the location of children are also being installed, she adds.

Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Finance.

How operators protect children from online criminals

The interest of adults in protecting children from cyber threats is quite timely and understandable. The number of daily fraudulent attacks on minors in the first half of 2025 increased by almost 50% compared to the second half of 2024, Peter Alferov, Beeline's director of anti-fraud, told Izvestia earlier.

—So, if last year there were an average of 1,430 such attacks per day, then in 2025 there were 2,140," he argued.

Safety is one of Rostelecom's key priorities, according to its representative. According to a study conducted by Solar Group (a subsidiary of Rostelecom) in January 2025, 81% of children faced fraud attempts at least once last year, one in 14 suffered from fraud, and one in five children, according to the study, faced cyberbullying.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Anna Selina

— Against this background, we see a growing interest of adults in how to protect their children, and solutions that allow them to do so. The growth in demand for parental control products in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024 was 6%, the company noted.

The most popular now are parental control services with functions for monitoring the child's location and family chat, the Megafon press service noted. The demand for such solutions is growing as adults learn about applications with such capabilities. It is important for them to take care of their child or loved ones, and maintain a level of safety. Location monitoring functions help with this — you don't need to call or write, you always know where your child is: at school, with friends or elsewhere.

The smartphone and the ubiquitous mobile Internet have created the illusion that you don't need to know anything anymore — any information can be found at the moment of need, says Leonid Konik, a partner at ComNew Research. This has greatly affected the cognitive abilities of humans, and especially of children and adolescents. Along with the knowledge of basic things, they have lost the ability to compare information and think critically, he believes. And if common sense is not restored to young people, they will increasingly become the target of fraud, which a sane person would never have fallen for, the expert concluded.