Recently announced data from parental control application Kaspersky Safe Kids provides a glimpse into the most searched websites by Vietnamese children and their time spent on apps during the COVID-19 pandemic, with YouTube being the app most used by the kids. 

Once installed, Kaspersky Safe Kids collected search queries and web browsing activities on devices that children use to access the Internet in oder to notify parents of content in “undesirable categories,” including adult media, alcohol, narcotics, tobacco, racism, and profanity. 

In their newly published 'Kids on the Web in 2021' report, the company looks into website hits, as well as screen time on mobile apps of children worldwide from May 2020 to April 2021 to deduce trends and obsessions among youths during the pandemic. 

As pointed out by the report, searches for websites in the 'Internet Communication' category continued to slip, from 24.16 percent last year to 22.08 percent this year, despite the pandemic and the fact that children around the world were attending school remotely.

The share of hits for 'Video Games' also fell more than two percentage points to 13.67 percent.

Meanwhile, online shopping is proving an integral part of life in lockdown, reflected by the two-point rise to 13.46 percent of pages in the 'Online Stores, Banks, Payment Systems' category. 

Children around the world were most interested in video games: they were the subject of 34.71 percent of the YouTube search queries examined, which almost doubles the interest in vlogging content and music. 

In Vietnam, websites' 'Software, Audio, Video' fared the most popular categories, gathering 44.7 percent of searches, followed by 'Internet Communication' (32.53 percent) and 'Video Games' (8.62 percent).

YouTube sits atop as the platform most used by children, with local instant messaging app Zalo and social media app Facebook ranking second and third, respectively.

Two mobile multiplayer games 'Mobile Legends: Bang Bang' and 'Free Fire MAX' also made the top ten apps most used by children during the pandemic. 

As Kaspersky sees it, screen time is not necessary a bad thing, as apps are encouraging children to be creative in creating original content rather than simply consuming it.

The company suggests that parents “not rush to block access to online resources” once their children have been exposed to something questionable, but rather sit down and talk to discover the children’s endeavor. 

They also recommends the use of parental control settings, which can help parents examine the websites their children are visiting, what they are searching for, and which apps they are spending time on. 

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