Kaspersky Safe Kids: Parental Control Certification Test 2022
In November 2022, AV-TEST performed a feature and website blocking test on the Kaspersky Safe Kids Parental Control application for Windows, Android and Apple iOS. The test focused on website blocking, showing how well the user of Kaspersky Safe Kids is protected from categories of websites like “Adult Content”, “Gambling” or “Video Games”. Also included is a feature review, which evaluates how well the product provides guardians with tools to keep their wards safe when using modern technologies independently and unobserved.
By the time they reach the age of 13, 65 percent of kids have a mobile device and this says nothing about the usage of the electronic device from older siblings, parents or access to the family Personal Computer. Starting as early as 4 years, kids have access to their first internet-capable device early in life, opening the door to the unrestricted digital world of the internet. Most parents and guardians are looking for a suitable tool to provide adequate supervision to their little ones. Since this is a problem for any parent no matter the spoken language such a tool should provide support for a variety of languages. Kaspersky Safe Kids is such a tool. It offers support for 14 different categories which it can supervise in 28 languages.
In this assessment, we examined 13 categories in 6 languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Portuguese. Webpages in these categories can be blocked and filtered, which prevents access to material that can be seen as unfit for kids of any age.
This is the 7th consecutive participation of Kaspersky’s products in Parental Control testing, and each time Kaspersky technologies meet certification criteria and earn certifications. In 2022 a total of 8500 URLs were included in the test, Kaspersky Safe Kids manages to block an overall average of 92% in Windows and 87% in Android for potentially inappropriate websites tested. In particular the most undesirable category “Adult Content” is blocked with close to 100% in Windows. The danger of overblocking by falsely detecting unsuitable content is good at 5,6% and 4,8% in Windows and Android respectively.
This feature review shows that Kaspersky Safe Kids provides numerous features sufficient to provide extensive and complete protection on all major operating systems. Covering all required areas such as harmful website blockage; Social Media control and Search Engine monitoring, to ensure only appropriate content can be accessed online; Time and schedule restrictions to foster a balanced amount of device use; Application Control, to restrict usage of unsuitable apps; Reporting, to help guardians understand the children’s device interaction; Geo-fencing and locating of the childs’ mobile device; Device battery monitoring and low-battery alerts; Security and Tamper Protection, providing security and in digital environment securing devices and improving privacy.
Kaspersky Safe Kids also features a YouTube Safe Search feature blocking search results by requests referring to prohibited categories like “Adult Content” or “Alcohol, tobacco, drugs”.