With cybercrimes increasing day by day, it is mandatory to teach your kids about internet safety. When it comes to scams and threats targeting children, identity theft, cyberbullying, and stalking are more common. Scammers are everywhere and it may not be easy for a child to recognize online scams. As a parent, if you are aware of the most common threats online, you will be able to protect your child’s safety online.
How to Protect Your Child’s Safety Online
Here are a few things you can do as a parent, to keep your child safe online.
- Make sure to talk to your child about online scams and the risks involved.
- If your child shops online, ask them to shop only on legitimate websites and show them a few trusted websites on which they can shop online. However, it is advised not to share your payment details with your child or save it to the accounts to which they have access.
- Educate your child about spammy links in emails and text messages. Make sure they do not click links they receive in messages and emails from unknown sources.
- One of the most important things you will need to teach your child is to never share their personal information or that of their family members online with strangers or on social media. This includes their birth date, real names, address, phone number, name of their school, Social Security number, and financial information.
- You can prevent unwanted pop-ups by using browser pop-up blocker extensions. These extensions will prevent unwanted malicious pop-ups.
- Educate your child on the importance of keeping their passwords secure. Make them understand that their personal details and social media accounts can be misused if they happen to share their passwords with someone else. They must never reveal their passwords to their friends who go to school with them or their social media friends.
- You can help your child keep their passwords secure by opting for a password manager. You can teach your child to create and manage their passwords for the different accounts they have. A family password manager plan is all you need to keep your passwords and that of your child’s secure.
- Though kids do not have credit reports, it is important to keep an eye on your child’s credit report. If at all you find a credit report in your kid’s name, look for accounts in your child’s name that weren’t opened by you. You can get your child’s credit reports from Equifax, TransUnion, or Experian, three popular consumer credit bureaus. You can request the credit bureaus to create a credit report for your child and then freeze it. Though freezing a credit report may not help prevent identity theft, it may prevent scammers from opening new accounts in your child’s name. You can freeze the credit report and lift the freeze when your child has to apply for credit.
Top Scams Aimed at Children
- Cyberbullying
- Identity theft
- Fake contests
1. Cyberbullying
Kids are, in most cases, targeted by bullies in gaming forums, which is where cyberbullying happens very often. Harassment or bullying also happens through email, text messages, and on social media. To make your child aware of bullying, talk to your child and ask him or her to inform you about the harassment or bullying and make sure your child does not respond to such messages and emails. You can gather and save evidence of bullying to report it.
2. Identity Theft
Fraudsters use techniques like phishing, to steal sensitive data about your child and your family. This includes passwords, banking details, and more. They will use the data they stole to commit financial fraud or to perform some other illegal activities. The best thing you can do to prevent your child from becoming a victim of identity theft, is by teaching your child not to respond to emails and text messages they receive from unknown sources requesting sensitive information. Teach your child to use strong passwords and you can also use a password manager that will help secure passwords of your whole family. It is also mandatory to educate your child on the type of information or photos they can share online on social media.
3. Fake Contests
Children are fond of contests like writing contests, lotteries, etc. because they love to play and win prizes. Scammers take advantage of that and create fake contests only to steal identities and sensitive data. They might also require children to pay a fee to participate in the contest. Your child might participate in such fake contests as they may not be aware of the fact that the contest itself is fake and no one will ever win. Talk to your child about such fake contests and ask him or her to inform you when they come across a contest in which they would like to participate. If a payment is required to increase the chances of winning, it could probably be a scam. Similarly, if the participant is required to pay money to collect the prize, stay away, because the contest could be run by scammers only to make money.
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