Study: Women have more web-smarts than men?

• Kaspersky Lab study reveals psychological reasons behind men and women’s differing online behaviour
• Men go for entertainment, games and sexual content; women go for communication and interaction

ACCORDING to a European study^, women use the Internet just as enthusiastically as men, but they do so in different ways, Kaspersky Lab said in a statement.
 
Kaspersky Lab and Germany’s University of Wuerzburg cooperated on a report about sexual differences, and the main findings show that men tend to search for entertainment, games and sexual content, while women look for communication and interaction with friends or romantic partners.
 
“Twice as many men as women reported different sorts of malware attacks during the period of the study,” said Professor Dr Frank Schwab, media psychologist at the University of Wuerzburg.
 
“Girls are expected to be more responsible, obedient, and sexually restrained, thus – depending on one’s gender – certain roles are performed, leading to the stereotype gender differences,” he added.
 
So, who has it right - does greater risk really bring greater reward?

When it comes to taking risks, women are happy to leave this to the men, Kaspersky Lab said. Why would women put themselves in danger when there are men volunteering to take all the risks?
 
The female way seems to be not only more secure in an online world but also more promising in terms of a long life, the company added.
 
Also, womens’ caring characters lead to more communicative and considerate behaviour both online and off.
 
In terms of risk-taking, they seem to take the more reasonable, considered a path resulting in risk avoidance and a safer way of life, the report said.
 
“There’s an increased risk of infection from visiting certain types of websites, including pornographic and gambling sites,” said David Emm (pic), security researcher at Kaspersky Lab.
 
“It’s not the content of these sites per se that makes them less safe, but the fact that they attract high numbers of visitors – and where there are visitors, there will be criminals. This provides cybercriminals with a large pool of potential victims.
 
“Human psychology also plays into their hands where some of these sites are concerned; victims are typically less willing to complain if they get infected whilst using one of these sites, than say a banking site, or if they fall victim to a scam when accessing pornographic content,” he added.
 
Safety however, remains an important topic for all, but particularly for men, who have a tendency to forget or overlook risks.
 
To download the report No Risk No Fun vs. Better Safe Than Sorry – Sex Differences in Online Safety Behavior, click here.
 
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