Indians beat the world in flirting online, SMS

We have always known it, but now there’s proof — Indians are the heaviest users of mobile SMS in the world, found a global survey of 9,000 ‘connected’ citizens by Web security firm Symantec.

At four hours a week, Indian adults race ahead of their counterparts from 11 other nation, the 2009 ‘Norton Online Living Report’ said.

The grown-ups, however, turned out to be no match for the kids, with 8-17 year olds from the US claiming the crown of being the most ‘texty’ creatures on the planet, with a weekly quota of 10 hours for sending text messages on phones.

Indians adults tied with Brazilians as the most flirtatious online, with nearly a third of each confessing to ‘flirting’ online. As many as 37% of Indian adults, the highest in the world, actually managed to ‘rekindle’ a dormant romantic relationship thanks to the internet. Interestingly, online socialising seemed to be taking a toll on real world socialising. ‘Connected Indians’ were spending only 8 hours a week in real world socialising, the lowest among the 12 countries and about half of the global average of 15 hours.

However, the online survey, conducted by market research firm Harris Interactive, is unlikely to reflect the behaviour of the average internet user in the country, as the sample might have been tilted towards heavier users. The survey was conducted on those who logged in at least once a week.

Gaurav Kanwal, the sales head of Symantec in India, said the survey offers valuable insights into security threats faced by users in general and children in particular. “One of the results that was quite surprising was the degree to which parents were unaware of how much time their children were spending online,” he said.

While Indian parents in the survey said their children spent around 21 hours per month on the internet, the children themselves said, on an average, they spent 34 hours a month. “About 22% log in at their friends’ place…this is underestimated by the parents,” Kanwal said.

Besides the chances of their children accessing ‘inappropriate content’ online, Indians were also the most vulnerable to security breaches such as attacks by viruses, worms and Trojans that steal valuable data. Around 67% of Indian adults were not inclined towards installing any security application to guard against such attacks.

“What has happened is that the attacks have become much more sophisticated and inconspicuous. Earlier, virus attacks were aimed at crashing your system or wiping out your data. But now, they are more interested in stealing your banking passwords or passing on other information from your PC. So, instead of crashes, people tend to have slow-running PCs and that is more likely to be overlooked,” Kanwal said.