3 Things Older Kids Wished They Knew About Online Security

According to a recent study , kids ages 8 to 18 spend about 7.7 hours a day online. The fact is, while teaching kids about cybersecurity is critical—online safety goes beyond just warding off hackers and thieves, to showing our kids how to make online decisions that’ll keep them safer and happier in the future, as well. So what do older, more cyber-savvy kids wish they knew earlier? Here are three cybersecurity tips to share with your kids early on:

1. Threats aren’t just from the outside. We teach kids a lot about all the cybersecurity threats they face “out there”. But the truth is: sometimes we need to protect kids from themselves. For example, they may innocently post personally identifiable information in their social media profiles, like their home addresses, or upcoming family vacation dates, or even information like what mall they’re heading to with friends that night. These are very innocent mistakes people of all ages can make—putting them at risk online and in person—so be sure to have a discussion about how this type of information can make them a target.

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2. Posts are for life. Kids love to be heard, share thoughts and photos, and get instant feedback from their peers. So, it’s no surprise many of them use social media to help fulfill those needs. But a recent study found that almost 25 percent of kids ages 10 to 16 regret (or has a friend who regrets) things they’ve posted on apps like Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook . Before your kids post a video, picture, livestream or anything else online, ask them to answer this question: is it something you’d want your parents or teachers to see? Afterall, what happens online, stays online… sometimes forever. While it may be tough for kids to see the risk of what seems to be an innocent post—like pics from a party, poolside hijinks, or even just sharing or re-tweeting a “funny” meme—they may come to regret it 10 years down the road or sooner. There are plenty of cautionary tales to share with them about athletes, scholarship recipients, celebrities, even politicians whose lives were derailed from something as seemingly innocent as a social media post. In addition, livestreaming on sites that often have little to no security controls/settings puts them at risk of being groomed by predators online.

3. Tracking friends has its downside. While there are many benefits to family tracking apps—your kids and teens need to be leery of apps with geolocation features that, when enabled, essentially allow their friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc. to track them endlessly. Sure, it’s fun at first. But before long—gone are the days of hanging out with just one or two friends without feeling the pressure and guilt of others (who perhaps weren’t invited) and are now angry, sad and feeling left out. And vice versa. This type of group tracking brings with it new, unhealthy levels of pressure, not to mention the potential for dangerous stalking.

So, what do you do if your kids have already posted a little TMI? The first step is to sit down with them and do a deep dive into their online content. Discuss what they think should stay and what should be removed (personal information, questionable comments, embarrassing pictures, etc.) If you notice some of your kids’ content on their friends’ sites, ask them nicely to take it down. Also, now’s the time to ask your kids to reconsider the people they’re sharing information with. Are they really trusted friends? If not, it may be time to delicately delete them.

While nothing replaces an open dialogue with your kids—you might want to double down on your efforts with a good all-in-one family safety app. Be sure to choose one that lets you do things like set content filters for safe browsing and limit your child’s screen time, while also receiving weekly activity reports that apply to all your kids’ devices, apps, and games. A good safety app will also offer convenient features like family location sharing and tracking, driver safety reports and more. After all, healthy tech habits start at home!