A new study from Kapersky Lab has revealed that a fifth of parents have had to deal with personal information being leaked, or money being spent unnecessarily, as a result of the online activities of their children, according to SC Magazine.

In news that may be unsurprising to people with youngsters at home, 12 per cent of those questioned in the report said that their kids had erased information by accident, with six per cent claiming that they had received big bills from mobile providers because of the number of applications and in-app purchases that their children had made.

Modern PCs, smartphones and tablets all give adults easy access to shopping online. But when kids are allowed to use these devices and parents leave their accounts open, issues can obviously arise.

The problems are compounded further by the fact that kids are often more tech savvy than their parents, meaning that they know how to carry out online purchases and even circumvent parental blocks that may be in place. So it is important to be open with children to ensure that they understand what they should and should not do when using the internet.

Report spokesperson, Konstantin Ignatev, said that it was still sensible to place parental controls on any web-enabled device, as this would help to minimise the chances of data being deleted or leaked, as well as preventing children from carrying out safe shopping online without adult supervision.

As more and more personal data is committed to the web, parents need to wise up to the risks that both they and their kids face whenever they go online. And since adult supervision cannot be provided perpetually, instilling youngsters with a sense of responsibility and putting controls in place is the best way to combat threats.