If you have kids who are going online, be it for school or for play, it’s vital that you teach them about proper online security. Without this, your kids could become vulnerable to malicious people or software that might look to take advantage of them.
To help you learn how you can best teach your kids about these complicated things, here are three things to teach your kids about online security.
Teach Them To Look For Secure Websites
One of the first and easiest things that you can teach your kids about online security is how to look for secure websites. When operating on a secure website, you and your children can rest easier knowing that the website is working to keep your information secure and that your connection to them is secure.
To find this, teach your kids how to recognize if a website is secure or not. This can be found by looking for a little lock icon next to the URL of the website they’re using. You can also teach them how to look for the “s” at the end of “http” to see if a website is secure. Additionally, you can install software or web browsers that can show you when you’re able to go to a website that isn’t secure. This little warning may be all your child needs to make sure they’re always going to secure websites.
Don’t Open Links From Strangers
While you might have everything that your child uses online password protected, you should still teach them about the proper safety etiquette when it comes to viewing shared items online.
Whenever your child is given a link to click on, be it in an email, a chat, or something else, you should advise them to check with you before they click on anything. By doing this, you can help them to learn if they are being given this link from someone that they know and trust. If it isn’t from someone they know and trust, they should never open the link, as it could be dangerous.
Keep Personal Information Private
Something else that you should teach your children about spending time online is to be careful about where they share personal information and who they interact with online.
Ideally, your children shouldn’t have social media accounts until they’re a bit older. But even without these accounts, your kids could find people who try to solicit information from them. So when they are online, teach your kids not to share pictures of themselves with people they don’t already know, not to share where they live, and not to mention the school that they go to.
If you want to make sure that your kids stay safe online and protect the devices that they’re using, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you see how this can be taught to them.
