The digital age has changed the landscape of parenting. Many parents feel out of their depth watching their kids go online to do homework, or to chat with a friend through a new app or online game. However, we don’t have to know how to message someone, chat online, or make a video call to see the warning signs.
Here are some helpful tips to make sure your family knows how to stay safe online:
• Talk about safety and the unknown: Inform children about the risks of opening emails or texts from senders they don’t know, or what to do if a stranger contacts them.
• Make password protection a priority. Children should know that their online information will be better protected if they use passwords. Make passwords strong (eight characters or more and a variety of letters, numbers and special characters), and never share them with anyone.
• Choose usernames for games and accounts that don’t reveal personal details about your child such as their location, what school they go to, their age or their full name.
• When downloading files and apps from the Internet, make sure they are from a trusted source.
• Emphasize the importance of protecting mobile devices. The first thing anyone should do with a new mobile device activates a passcode. Talk to your kids about this, and the importance of protecting the device itself. A device that gets into the wrong hands could result in videos or pictures being posted online by someone else in your child’s name.
• Remind kids that what they post on the Internet is not always private. Once something is posted online, you no longer have control over it. It can be forwarded, copied and pasted, manipulated, printed out or saved – it can remain online, in some form, potentially forever.
