A young user can, without thinking, share his private data with an unfamiliar person who may interest him or, on the contrary, scare him. Rakuten Viber and 24 Channels Remind them of basic safety rules that will help protect (and not only) young users.

Who is at risk?

A 2023 survey by National Bank and Opendabot found that the number of attacks by cyber fraudsters has increased since the beginning of the large-scale attack. The most vulnerable audience was young people aged 18-24.
The group that did not participate in the research but actively uses the network is children under the age of 18.

They can also become easy targets for scammers due to their lack of experience. This is evidenced by the regular mention of similar cases in the news: criminals resort to blackmail, fraudulently leak data, etc.

Important rules

A young user can, without thinking, share his private data with an unfamiliar person who may interest him or, on the contrary, scare him.

Such data includes:

• Passwords and code words
• Persons
• Payment data
• geographical location

Contact data may be required for registration on the site and payment data for the purchase. Passwords, code words, location or personal photographs may be requested by a stranger who introduces himself as a “friend of relatives” or a “circle acquaintance”. These are hypothetical situations where a young user might fall in love with a scammer. Such situations should be discussed with the child in advance and suggestions should be made. safe alternatives:

• Check with a senior confidant before ordering or signing up.
• Come up with code words with your friends and family to check if this is really the new number of a familiar person or someone pretending to be one.
• Never share media of a personal nature (photos and videos).
• Do not follow links from unknown recipients.

What privacy settings need to be enabled for protection?

1. View and manage message requests: Set for unknown contacts. Then chat requests from unknown people will not enter the inbox immediately, but will be collected in a separate folder.
   To enable: Click the More symbol with three dots in the bottom right corner → open Settings → Privacy → Message Requests.
2. Restrictions on adding to groups: Only familiar people can add a younger user to groups.
   To activate: “Settings” → “Privacy” → “Add to group settings”.
3. Hide photo and date of birth: This way, only users in the contact list can see the account photo and the date of birth remains unknown.
   To enable: “Settings” → “Privacy” → “Show your photo” and turn off “Share birth date”.
   By the way, thanks to the advanced security mode for accounts of young users, which works by default, the child’s name and profile photo are not displayed in chatbots. You can find out how Rakuten Viber works for people under 16 on the official website.
4. Geographic location is hidden. Rakuten Viber never collects precise location data unless the user consents by enabling the “Allow Precise Geolocation Services” option. This option cannot be enabled for young users under 16 years of age. If absolutely necessary (for example, at the request of parents), you can share your location once via the “plus” symbol by selecting the “Location” option.
5. Two-step authentication: This feature is necessary to further protect your profile.
   To enable: “Settings” → “Privacy” → “2-step verification” → Enter the 6-digit PIN code twice → The address associated with the Viber account will be displayed on the email confirmation page → You will receive an email asking you to confirm two-step verification e-mail to complete the setup -enter mailing address email.

Also introduce your child to the new “Caller ID” function: a special message from Viber appears during calls from unknown numbers. The message includes a call safety indicator – “potential spam” or “safe”. To protect yourself from phone scammers, we recommend rejecting any calls that will be marked as spam.