12 ways you can teach your children about online privacy!

Our kids have been spending more time on the internet with with it being the summer holidays, I know my youngest has especially. The internet is a fantastic place where kids can learn many things but curiosity can lead to dangers too. That’s why parents should educate their children about internet safety and privacy online.

12 ways you can teach your children about online privacy:

1. Set an example and become digital literate yourself, try out the apps and websites that your children are using but try not to push your opinion.

2. Start talking to your child early and do it often. They must know they are always welcome to come to you in case of any worries or doubts.

3. Talk to them about cyberbullying. Show how to block unwanted people or report their inappropriate actions online. Most of all help them understand they are not alone, they can always come and talk to you.

4. Talk about social media and messaging. Discuss what your child should and should not share on social media platforms. They must understand that what goes on the internet, stays on the internet. Nothing is ever 100% private.

5. Explain why privacy matters especially when talking to strangers. Talk about what kind of information is shareable online. Predators can use their address, school location, and other information against them.

6. Create strong passwords together. Advise your child to choose strong passwords which are different for each account. It might be challenging to come up with and memorise a vast number of logins but it's better to be safe than sorry.

7. Manage privacy settings. Most social media or messaging services allow their users to manage their privacy settings. Sit down with your child and adjust those settings to make sure your kid’s profile is as safe and private as possible.

8. Explain why free public Wi-Fi is dangerous. Everybody loves free Wi-Fi, and children are not an exception but public places may have unsecured Wi-Fi networks which may be monitored by third parties.

9. Talk about ads and online offers. Nothing is ever totally free. Advise your child to be careful about deals that may look too good to be true. Some offers may be scams designed to extract private information.

10. Install games and apps together. Make sure you download all games and apps from secure sources. Also, check that both the app and its provider are reputable. Fake pop ups often prompt kids to install various applications for free but that may result in malware infecting the device or the whole home network.

11. Discuss viral news, some of these might turn out to be fake. In the future it will get harder to tell fabrications from reality. Talk about fact checking and trustworthy websites.

12. Use safety solutions. First of all make sure that the search engine your kids use has a search filtering option enabled and make sure to update your antivirus regularly in case your child does download an infected file.

What do you do to keep your children safe online?