For adults I break down the threats into three categories; Big Tech, Big Brother and scammers. But for children we have to add in another, which is much more worrisome, and that is spying and stalking. One of our prime desires is to keep our children safe, and online devices add a whole new dimension to this threat.
A wake up call for me happened ten years ago when my twelve year old son told me that he had been talking to a 26 yr old man on an online game that he played. I learned that they had been talking for a number of weeks and that they had formed a friendship. At the time it had never even occurred to me that he could meet people by just by playing a video game in his room.
- It is very important that you have good communications with your children.
- It’s important that you talk to your kids and teach them about online dangers, including Big Tech, Big Brother and potentially bad people.
- They must know to NEVER tell people where they live or anything about their lives. And they must know to never meet anyone, nor to turn on the camera or share a phone number, email address or any other way to contact them – because if someone has this info they can find you.
- Communication is the key.
- It’s important for them to understand that privacy is key to security.
- And although I talk about the importance of privacy, it’s vital that their life is not private to you. You can and must keep track of what they are doing online.