Understanding Cybersecurity: Why Kids Need to Learn Digital Safety

The internet offers a world of fantastic opportunities for kids, aiding communication, boosting learning, and providing exciting ways to play. But it’s essential to remember that there is also an endless cornucopia of temptations and dangers that can damage young minds, infect your devices, and put their (or your) personal information at risk. 

So, how do you warn your children about the potential hazards of the online world without terrifying them?

This article explores how to approach cybersecurity for kids. We’ll explain how to teach kids online safety in age-appropriate ways and cover approaches to protect their online reputation, identity, and digital equipment. 

Ready? Let’s get started. 

Why is digital safety important for children?

We all know that the internet is full of unsuitable content for children. From adult entertainment to social media, there are many hazards out there that can affect how a young mind might perceive the world. 

And while we encourage children to act responsibly when we’re overseeing their online activities, kids will be kids, and a child with a curious mind left to access online content alone can soon get into hot water. 

However, it’s not just what a child can potentially see that can be the problem. The principal risks for children online are:

• Identity theft — yes, even children can fall foul of this crime
• Online reputation — a flippant comment or association with questionable groups or websites can come back to bite years down the line
• Password security — keeping a password confidential
• Phishing dangers — understanding what they are and how to spot them
• Catfishing — people aren’t always who they say they are online

We’ll look at each of these, explaining how to guide your children away from the pitfalls without scaring the heck out of them! 

Protect your kids with parental blockers

You can’t always be around when your kids are using the internet. So, perhaps the most sensible thing you can do as a responsible parent is to set up blockers that prohibit access to objectionable online content. Most reputable Internet Service Providers offer parental controls over the types of websites that children can access. 

Parental blockers can help oversee a child’s online activity while protecting them from accessing unsuitable content. They can also restrict internet access according to time, preventing kids from staying up all night watching cartoons and playing games on their devices.

But remember: no ISP parental blocker service is infallible. And determined kids will find ways to access dodgy content. 

So, always keep an eye on your kids’ online behavior and guide them in the basics of online safety. 

Outlining the basics of online safety

Be clear with your child about the behaviors you want them to follow. Create some guidelines about how they access the internet and where.

The basics for safe online use are:

• Establish family rules — Define accessible devices and when and where they can use them.
• Maintain privacy — They should avoid posting or trading personal pictures and never disclose personal information, such as location, phone number, school name, or home address. 
• Create a screen name — They should protect their personal security by creating an online nickname that disguises their real name. 
• Password safety — They should never share passwords. But insist they share their passwords with you so you can help them if they forget it. . 
• Physical safety — They should always gain your approval and supervision before (and during) meeting with an online friend. 
• Threatening content — They should tell you if they receive threatening messages, posts, texts, or emails. 
• Remain open — They should tell you about a hurtful or scary conversation. 

Having clear guidelines isn’t about being dictatorial—explain that their safety is paramount. 

Can’t we just trust our kids to stay safe online?

Ideally, we’d provide the guidelines, and our kids would stick to them. 

But:

According to research from cybersecurity experts Kaspersky, many kids left to their own devices online are engaging in risky practices. 

They discovered that:

• 73% of teenagers feel they couldn’t contemplate life without a smartphone. 
• 50% of teenagers take their phone to bed.
• 44% of 8-16-year-olds are constantly online on social media or entertainment sites.
• 40% of the young people they interviewed had revealed sensitive information, including their precise location or home address
• 33% of children have lied about their age in online forums
• 37% of young internet users have experienced bullying, inappropriate content, or financial threats. 

It’s impossible to monitor a child’s internet use one hundred percent of the time. So, it’s imperative that you do what you can to help your child understand the risks without terrifying them!

How do you explain online safety in easy-to-understand words?

Sit down with your child and write down some simple rules together. 

For example:

• I’ll only go online with permission from an adult.
• I’m allowed 30 minutes of screen time each day.
• I can use BBC iPlayer for kids, Netflix for kids, Disney+, and YouTube with Safe Search (and list the sites they’re allowed to use).
• I’ll ask for permission before installing a game.

Write the rules on a chart displayed in a communal area or their bedroom, and have regular refresher conversations. 

For older children, you can expand the rules, offering a little more independence while being clear about safety guidelines:

• I’ll never reveal my address or real name online
• I’ll ask permission before authorizing in-app payments
• I’ll avoid low-quality apps because they can include Trojan Horses and viruses.
• I won’t send intimate pictures or share private information
• I’ll tell an adult if someone is trying to get me to do something I’m not comfortable with

Empower your child to make the right decisions

Often, telling a child not to do something can cause their curiosity to get the better of them. 

So, rather than framing the rules as prohibitive actions, you could create a checklist that puts them in the driving seat. 

For example:

• I know what to do if something makes me feel bad
• I know what information I can reveal in real life and what I can say online
• I know that I can talk solely to my friends online and not to strangers
• I know how to identify a bad website
• I know how to create a robust password and how to use 2-factor authentication

How to identify a bad website

Poor-quality websites are those that demand a lot of processing power while offering very little in return. Think click-bait sites with tons of ads. 

Look out for:

• Slow load times — if it’s loading slowly (and you have typically fast internet speeds) it’s likely to be doing something in the background. 
• Excessive popups and ads — a sure sign of a click bait site.
• Poor typography — random use of fonts and poorly written content
• Unusual URL — low-quality web addresses are typically long and difficult to remember.
• No privacy policy 
• Poor or inconsistent design

How to create a strong password

A child needs to understand that a password should be difficult for someone to guess. So, avoid references to things they might share online, like their pet’s name, favorite pop stars, football teams, and book or movie characters. 

However, their password should also be something they won’t easily forget. They should avoid writing it down and always share it with you or another trusted adult. 

A strong password should include:

• Letters, numbers, and symbols
• At least one capital letter
• At least eight characters in length
• Nothing obvious, like names or dates

Play the Word Disassociation game

We probably all know the Association Game—one person says “tree,” the next person names something associated with “tree,” like “leaf,” i.e., tree, leaf, paper, airplane.

The Disassociation game is the same, but each player needs to produce a word that has no association with the previous—-i.e., tree, Battenberg cake, spaceship, plug socket. 

This is a good way to find a password for a child that doesn’t relate to their interests. For example, they might love Harry Potter, so start the game with Harry and see how far from Harry you can get within six goes—-i.e., Harry Potter, jam roly poly, football, mouse, cup of tea, cushion. 

And “cushion” could be part of their password.

Then:  

Make it password safe

Go back to the rules and add capitals, numbers, and characters. 

So, it could be: Cushion1973!

Or better still, hide the capital letter: cusHion73! 

Ensure it’s a word your child knows how to spell.

How to protect your child’s online reputation

People often say things to each other online that they wouldn’t dream of saying to somebody’s face. The online community doesn’t always recognize irony, so comments intended as jokes could be wrongly construed. 

For example, a benign, jokey comment about somebody’s outfit that they wouldn’t take offense to in real life could be perceived as bullying or toxic by the online community or the receiver. 

Likewise, if you’re a member of a specific online group, others will likely associate you with the same morals (or lack thereof) presented through the group’s content. 

So, it’s essential to instill in your child that online behavior isn’t separate from their IRL conduct. What they write in a comments thread or as a post could become a permanent record if it gets shared, so responsible online behavior is as important as the way they present themselves in the real world. 

Content that could affect your child’s online reputation

Here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of ways that your child’s online reputation could be adversely affected:

Comments

• Comments about other pupils or school staff on social media platforms can quickly get out of hand, so ensure your child knows what type of comment could get them in trouble. 
• Comments about other people’s reputations. Harmful or defamatory remarks about other’s posts, photos, or videos. 
• Inappropriate language/poor grammar. 
• Misleading/fraudulent information about you or others. 

Photos and video

A photograph or video can be almost impossible to remove if it goes viral. So, you must warn your kids about posting images of:

• Nights out (for older kids)
• Pranks
• Images of other people posted without their permission. 
• Content that compromises somebody else’s security
• Drunk videos or content that incriminates themselves or others
• Happy slapping
• Copyright infringement — distributing or sharing content on YouTube without the appropriate license can get them banned from the platform. 
• Tagging people without their permission
• Using AI to create controversial or defamatory content. 

How to explain identity theft to a child

Publicly accessible personal information is an identity-theft risk. 

You don’t necessarily need to go into the ins and outs of identity theft but make your child aware that their personal information is valuable and needs protection. 

Avoid:

• Using full names online
• Mentioning addresses or postcodes
• Publicizing a date of birth and/or age
• Sharing details that might lead someone to guess their password. 

Advise your kids to set their social media content to “Share with friends only”. They should avoid making updates and posts public unless you’re sure they don’t contain clues to personal information. 

If in doubt, avoid public posting. Remember, platforms like X are typically public by default, offering minimal control of privacy settings, so steer your children away from platforms that could make their content public. 

Teaching a child to spot a phishing attack

A phishing attack could occur via email, Direct Messages, SMS messages, or any other electronic messaging service. The message looks like it’s from a legitimate source, and the criminal will try all sorts of tricksy approaches to encourage people to give away their personal information. 

And once they have a person’s information, they can steal their identity or make fraudulent charges. 

How to recognize a phishing attack

Encourage your child to let you know if someone is asking them to verify information of any kind. If it feels suspicious, it probably is. 

Look out for:

• Unsolicited messages from strangers — if a message is from a stranger, it’s best to ignore it
• Urgent call to action — if someone is telling you they need money quickly, it’s probably a scam
• Threats — distressing messages threatening to reveal a secret
• Poor grammar and spelling — often a give-away, but increasingly less obvious
• Mismatched email domains — always check the sender’s email address. If it’s not an official company address, assume it’s a scam. The message might appear to be from your bank, but the sender’s email might be tsbbank@gmail.com. A legitimate company would never use Gmail, Hotmail, or Outlook, for example. 
• Links and unwanted attachments — never click them. Don’t click if you’re unsure where it’s sending you. 

This is a lot of information for a child. Remember, the best approach is to encourage your child to tell you about any messages from unknown sources and never to click or open a link. Help them make an informed decision using the advice above. 

The essential facets of online security for kids

There’s a range of ways to encourage a healthy online existence for kids that will set them in good stead for the rest of their lives. 

So, consider discussing the following with your child:

• Developing awareness of online relationships — Asking permission before engaging in online activities of any type, helping develop responsible decision-making.
• Health, Wellbeing, and Lifestyle — Discussing the impact of screen time on mental and physical health.
• Online reputation — How online behaviors should mirror IRL actions. Explaining that search engines build a profile for all users, which affects their “online reputation.”
• Positive and mindful online behavior — Treating others as they would like to be treated themselves
• Self-image and identity — Encourage critical thinking about online content and its depiction of gender, race, and cultural representations, challenging harmful stereotypes. Explain that some images are doctored and body images may not be realistic.
• Assumed anonymity —- How trolling, cyberbullying, and heated arguments can result in real-life consequences, such as lawsuits and a criminal record in some cases.
• Recognizing the “filter bubble” — Social media platforms can produce echo chambers where people’s opinions can be unnaturally amplified, reinforcing confirmation bias. 
• Fact check — As AI becomes more prevalent, it’s essential to double-check your facts before sharing them. 
• Social media — How these platforms can lead to social comparison, envy, shame, anxiety, or conceit, and the impacts of doom scrolling on mental health.

Help children make good decisions

Writing an article about cybersecurity without covering the potential pitfalls is challenging, and it can easily feel like the internet is a dangerous wilderness for kids. 

However, there are many positive environments for children online, and ultimately, keeping children safe online is about making them aware of the hazards in an age-appropriate way. 

Drive young children towards safe, fun experiences, like educational gaming in a child-only space, like that offered by CodeMonkey and BBC CBeebies, where they can engage, play, and watch age-appropriate content. And remember to SafeSearch filters on search engines. 

Remember, cybersecurity for kids isn’t about scaring them; it’s about making them aware of the potential hazards. 

Thanks for reading!