Online safety for children in the Middle East is increasingly shaped by a small group of familiar apps. YouTube accounted for 30.5% of children’s app use in Kaspersky’s regional data for the first eight months of 2026, followed by TikTok at 15.3% and WhatsApp at 13.6%.
The figures come from anonymised Kaspersky Safe Kids data covering app activity on Android devices and desktop computers. Kaspersky’s separate 2026 report on children’s online interests describes how the company analyses anonymised activity; its global figures are not from the same dataset as this Middle East release. The regional release does not provide a sample size or a country-by-country breakdown, so the percentages should be interpreted as shares of tracked activity, not as the proportion of children who use each app.
| App | Share of tracked app activity |
|---|---|
| YouTube | 30.5% |
| TikTok | 15.3% |
| 13.6% |
Online safety for children starts with the platforms they use most
Kaspersky also found multiplayer games among the top 10 most-visited online resources in most Middle Eastern countries. Roblox appeared on both smartphones and computers, while Discord was among the desktop resources children visited. The release does not rank those services against one another or publish individual country figures.
Games and chat services can put children in contact with people they do not know offline. Kaspersky says grooming can involve an adult posing as a peer, building trust through private conversations and then pressuring a child to share personal material or meet in person. That is a description of a possible abuse pattern, not evidence that a particular platform or user is unsafe by default.
UAE families have already seen a local platform change: Roblox limited some chat features in the UAE after a joint statement with the TDRA. The measure illustrates why parents need to check the communication settings inside the specific game or app their child uses, rather than assuming every service handles chat in the same way.
AI-generated images add another child-safety concern
Kaspersky’s release also warns that generative AI can be used to make fabricated images of children for cyberbullying. A photo shared for an ordinary reason can be copied and altered without the child’s permission, making control over public posts and image sharing part of the safety conversation.
In February, Reuters reported that UNICEF had found at least 1.2 million children across 11 countries disclosed that images of them had been manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes in the previous year. That is a separate finding from Kaspersky’s Middle East app data, not a regional estimate.
What the regional data can — and cannot — say
As a starting point for conversations about online safety for children, the figures describe app use rather than a safety audit. They do not measure how often children encounter harmful content, how many receive messages from strangers or whether one service is safer than another. A high share of activity means an app accounts for a larger share of tracked usage, not that it causes more harm.
A separate UNICEF Innocenti study, published in September, examined technology-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse across 21 countries. It estimated that 20 million internet-using children aged 12 to 17 had experienced at least one form of abuse in a year; nearly 60% of cases took place on social media and 14% in online games. Those results describe reported experiences in that study, not the children or platforms in Kaspersky’s regional telemetry, and they cannot be mapped directly onto the Middle East ranking.
Kaspersky’s data shows where children spend time; the UNICEF study measures reported harm. Neither provides a platform-by-platform safety score for a family to use as a pass-or-fail list.
UAE child digital safety rules set a local baseline
The UAE government’s current guidance states that children under 15 may not create, use, or operate personal accounts on social media platforms under Cabinet Resolution No. 106 of 2026. It also says digital platforms must provide age verification and child-safety tools such as privacy settings, parental controls, age-based content ratings, time limits and reporting options.
The rules cover social media accounts; parents should check the official guidance rather than assume that every messaging app or game falls into the same category.
UAE rules also assign responsibilities to caregivers, including monitoring children’s digital activity, using parental-control tools and discussing safe use. Apple’s latest parental controls offer one example of device-level settings parents can review, but a device setting cannot explain what a child is seeing in a particular game or who can contact them there.
Kaspersky recommends that parents talk openly with children about online risks and make clear they can ask for help if a conversation feels uncomfortable. Andrey Sidenko, the company’s Head of Child Online Safety, said:
“Open communication at home is one of the most effective ways to help children navigate online risks.”
Andrey Sidenko, Head of Child Online Safety at Kaspersky
That advice is more practical than treating an app ranking as a list of services to ban. Parents can check privacy and contact settings together, ask which games or chats their children use, and agree on what to do if someone asks for personal information, photos or secrecy.
The figures offer a snapshot of children’s digital routines in the region, not a forecast of how every child behaves. Kaspersky’s study covers January to August 2026; its release does not say whether it will publish the same breakdown again or how the UAE’s newer social-media rules might affect future measurements.
How can UAE parents check a game’s age suitability and risks?
The UAE government’s Sannif service lets parents search for a digital game and review potential risks before deciding whether it is suitable. They can then check the game’s own age rating and privacy settings.
What should parents check before enabling in-game chat?
Check who can send messages or friend requests, whether voice and private chat can be limited, and how to block or report another player. Review those settings with the child, since the available controls differ by game.
