Teaching your kids about Internet safety
One of the harsh realities of our ultra-connected online 21st century is that a successful cyber attack on a household can come as a result of the smallest misstep. At Winzum we take the importance of online safety incredibly seriously as you can see here [The importance of data & cyber security], but something that isn’t often talked about enough is the significance of online safety for kids.
Aside from the fact that children are amongst some of the most vulnerable members of our society, you also have to remember that one successful phishing attack on a home broadband setup, for example, can end up infecting all the computers on it.
A huge part of online safety, and mitigating any potential malware, phishing or ransomware attacks, is therefore making sure that everybody in your local network knows the threats at hand. Teaching Internet safety for kids is one of the best ways for families to do this, and being the nice people we are at Winzum we have compiled a guide to help you do so!
The importance of passwords
It doesn’t take long for people to learn about the need to have passwords on things, and most children will have experienced this at some point in our super modern technological world. Here’s the thing though: what many children may not realise at first is the significance of password strength and password variability.
When walking your children through the creation of their first passwords, it is critical that you teach them about the need to make sure each one is slightly different, and about ways to ensure maximum password strength too. You can find some more tips for passwords here [top tips for passwords].
Teach the kids about computer viruses early on
In order to have the best chance of making sure your family stay safe online it is a good idea to tell the kids about things like computer viruses early on, so that they grow up with an appreciation of what these malicious computer programs are.
A knowledge of computer viruses is essential to the online safety for kids, because without it they won’t grasp the dangers of online activity. The 2000 Digimon: The Movie film is a fantastic and engrossing way for children to understand the true nature of computer viruses, for instance.
Make sure your kids know of the dangers of talking to strangers
Teaching online safety for kids isn’t just about passwords or computer viruses though, in fact the biggest danger for children online is probably the presence of dangerous strangers.
Because of social media and chat sites such as Facebook or Omegle it has never been easier for children to speak to random people online. Whilst this can also foster interesting new friendships from around the world, it is also important that you tell your kids about the innate dangers.
After setting up an email explain what phishing is
Most kids don’t need an email account right away, however as they grow older it won’t be long before they need one. In order for anyone to stay safe online these days they need to have an appreciation of phishing, so it is essential that you explain what phishing is when teaching Internet safety for kids.
There are a whole load of crucial techniques to prevent being caught out by phishing here [The best ways to stop phishing scams], maybe you can give them a read with the kids together?