With rising curiosity in rising applied sciences, together with generative AI, Safer Web Day supplies a chance for individuals of all ages to interact and talk about on-line actions and security.

February 6, 2024, marks Safer Web Day – an annual occasion that brings individuals around the globe collectively to create a safer and higher on-line atmosphere for all, particularly for youth. Microsoft has a longstanding dedication to little one on-line security and, as we’ve not too long ago outlined, we see a necessity for persevering with analysis to assist us all hold evolving our approaches. So, as a part of our ongoing participation in Safer Web Day, we’re releasing the most recent findings from our annual World On-line Security Survey, together with two new sources to assist dad and mom have interaction with their youngsters: a Household Security Toolkit and a brand new instructional sport from Minecraft.

Microsoft’s annual survey, in its eighth yr, seeks to raised perceive individuals’s on-line experiences to tell our method to digital security. We share our outcomes publicly in order that others can profit from the insights as we collectively attempt to create a safer digital ecosystem. With the launch of generative AI instruments, this yr’s survey included a selected concentrate on how individuals of all ages understand the alternatives and dangers posed by this rising know-how. Our survey reveals:

Millennials and Era Z are driving the uptake of generative AI, with greater familiarity and early adoption resulting in larger pleasure

Younger adults are probably the most energetic customers and experimenters (56%). The usage of AI as a sensible software excited respondents probably the most, together with for translation functions (43%), work (32%), and faculty (31%).

Nonetheless, 87% of respondents have been nervous about no less than one potential danger arising from generative AI, together with considerations round its use for scams (71%) and deepfakes (69%). These worries steadily elevated with age – Era Z was least involved whereas Boomers have been most involved.

Encouragingly, our survey discovered that 87% of youth are speaking to their dad and mom about on-line dangers. Nonetheless, larger consciousness of security options and instruments is required

In comparison with our 2023 analysis, the outcomes present a 20-point bounce within the variety of teenagers who talked to their dad and mom about on-line danger. In actual fact, younger persons are extra prone to communicate to their dad and mom than their friends and mates.

Whereas extra teenagers are speaking to their dad and mom, our analysis outcomes recommend a decline in the usage of security options. For instance, the usage of non-public accounts, the most well-liked security function in final yr’s analysis, fell from 64% in 2023 to 56% in 2024. Parental management use remained regular – 90% of fogeys reported utilizing no less than one parental management, with feminine caregivers probably the most energetic in partaking with their youngsters’s on-line actions.

Obtain the total infographic to study extra about our survey findings right here.

New on-line security sources for youth, dad and mom, and educators

Enabling customers and their households to help knowledgeable selections about their on-line exercise is much more essential with the appearance of generative AI. Importantly, our survey outcomes present that younger individuals belief their dad and mom and go to them for help and steering round on-line danger. To assist younger individuals, educators, and households navigate the digital world, we’re releasing two new on-line security sources. We additionally not too long ago printed a toolkit for college students and educators to assist them of their use of generative AI in studying environments.

• Microsoft Household Security Toolkit. We notice dad and mom and caregivers are busy, and that the tech panorama retains evolving. This new toolkit supplies steering on how one can leverage Microsoft’s security options and household security settings to help and improve digital parenting, plus steering for households trying to navigate the world of generative AI collectively. We’ve additionally included hyperlinks to a collection of informational sources already made for folks, such because the Household On-line Security Institute’s How To Be A Good Digital Mother or father Toolkit.
• “Good Sport” from Minecraft Schooling. “Good Sport” is the latest addition in within the CyberSafe assortment of immersive Minecraft worlds designed to assist younger individuals keep protected, blissful and thriving on-line. This journey teaches gamers the duties, instruments, responses, and methods that allow wholesome on-line interactions, collaboration, and rewarding digital experiences, whether or not these are a part of multiplayer gaming or different on-line actions. The CyberSafe collections are among the many most downloaded instructional content material on the Minecraft Market, having been downloaded greater than 25 million instances by gamers worldwide. 

• The Classroom Toolkit: Unlocking generative AI safely and responsibly. Now out there for educators, the Classroom Toolkit blends narrative tales with tutorial data to create an immersive and efficient studying expertise for college students aged 13-15 years. The toolkit is designed to assist provoke conversations about accountable AI practices within the classroom, such because the essential matters of content material fabrications, privateness issues, bias consciousness, and psychological wellbeing.

Microsoft stays dedicated to creating safer on-line environments for all

We acknowledge the function we play as a tech firm in defending people, significantly youth, from dangerous and unlawful on-line content material and conduct. Security by design is on the core of our merchandise, and we stay dedicated to persevering with to help and work intently with companions throughout business, authorities, and civil society to create a safer on-line world for all.

Further sources Microsoft supplies to strengthen on-line security:

 Report Methodology

Microsoft has printed annual knowledge since 2016 that surveys how individuals of various ages use and think about on-line know-how. This newest consumer-based report is predicated on a survey of almost 17,000 people that was carried out this previous summer time in 17 international locations* analyzing individuals’s attitudes and perceptions about on-line security instruments and interactions. Responses to on-line security differ relying on the nation. Full outcomes could be accessed right here.

Tags: On-line Security, Safer Web Day, Xbox Stay