Internet Security Tips for Kids: "The Talk," Digital Age Style

The online world is now is a life skill that you should start teaching your children at a young age. With iPads now being made with covers for even the youngest of children to play with, I saw one for as young as 3 years old, the time to start working on your child’s online security skills is as soon as they learn to talk. Computers, binary, HTML, these are the words of the future, and your children must be able to at least speak the basic things that will keep them safe. This article will be divided up into two parts: 1. Practical Internet security tipsrn 2. Technical Internet security tipsrnThe first is something you can go over with them. The second will take you setting up some apps on their computer and teaching them why they’re important to use.

Practical Internet security tips for kids

The stipulation for each one of these is “unless you talk to mom or dad first.” Be sure that you’re well prepared for what your child will face online as it should be your job to educate them, not random people online who may or may not be able to help them appropriately.

Here are six practical Internet security tips for kids:

1. Personal Information: Personal information like addresses, telephone numbers of home, parent’s work, or the school they attend should never be given out to anyone met online. 2. Meetings: Never arrange to meet someone that you have met online in a forum, chat room, or anywhere else. They may say they’re Emily and 7 years old too, but that doesn’t mean they’re not named Gregory and are 37 years old. 3. Posting: Never post anything online that you don’t want to be out there forever, and be very careful when you’re a young person with photos. After working with the police in an educational capacity, they all agree on this - pedophiles have hard drives full of pictures of kids that were found online. This goes for parents as well: it might be cute to share a bathtub photo on Facebook with friends, but you never know where that picture will end up. 4. Location: Never post your location when you’re out in public on a smartphone or tablet. This information can be used to stalk you, be careful of the settings of your apps as well as they may publish your location. 5. Messages: All messages you receive should be discussed with your parents. It’s not like the old days when a letter came in the mail and you knew. Encourage your kids to talk about emails and other messages that come to them. 6. Password: Make sure they never give a password away to anyone, not even a teacher or their friends. These are private, and that includes email passwords, WiFi passwords, and social media. Remember when you were a kid in the 80s and you wanted to share everything with everyone? You have to teach your kids that when it comes to Internet security, they can’t do that!

Technical Internet security tips for kids

There are a plethora of apps, software, and online tools that will keep your kids safer online. Here are some of the best pieces of technical Internet security tips: 1. Software: Malware, keyloggers, and even programs that can watch you through your webcam are everywhere. Teach your kids about them, and make sure that you show them the anti-virus software that can help protect them from this, and how it works. 2. Legal issues: Teach them about the IP address, and how it can be used to track their online activities. Be sure that they understand that it doesn’t matter if their Twitter handle is "@NotMeAtAll," their IP address can still track them. 3. Public Wifi: Never use a public wifi service unless they’re connected to a VPN service. The public WiFi sphere is full of man in the middle attacks. A VPN service provider can stop most of these from happening, find a reliable VPN review site to learn more. 4. Location sharing apps: Apps that have location sharing as the default setting are dangerous. Be sure to change the settings for your child, and let them know about it. Check every now and then to be sure that the setting hasn’t changed. A new policy could come along and reset the settings to the original ones. 5. Use a parental lock app: A parental lock app will lock out the most hardcore content. I’m not going to be one to dictate your child’s sexual development as they reach maturity, but legally speaking they can’t view pornography until they’re 18 in most countries. 6. Try a location tracking app: There are apps track your child’s location via the smartphone’s GPS. Be sure that you have a reliable app installed, and use a VPN while it’s on to add extra protection. This can help keep your child safe by knowing where they are, and can help you find a lost phone in a second!

Internet security tips for kids

Perhaps the best thing that you can do right now is take this list, alter it a bit to fit your child and home, and print it off. Tack it up next to the computer and hope that this lasting reminder hammers home how important Internet security is for your children. If one piece of paper helps them make one good decision that they wouldn’t have...I think it was worth it!