While the digital realm is rich with opportunities for our kids to explore, learn and connect, it is also rife with predators and illicit activities.
To be able to take appropriate action to protect their families, parents must be aware of the risks associated with children's online safety.
“One of the biggest hurdles to keeping kids safe online is a parent's lack of knowledge of the cyber spaces where their kids are active. Many parents sanction their kids having social media accounts without much clue about how those platforms actually work,” explains cybersecurity expert and GoldPhish CEO, Dan Thornton.
Some parents are unaware that the online chat rooms in the games their children play allow them to freely interact with strangers. Some parents don't know that recreational drugs are sold to minors online, or they don't believe their child could ever engage with pornographic or suicidal content.
The likelihood that their child will end up as a victim or even a perpetrator of cybercrime increases as a result, shares Thornton.
The UK communications regulator Ofcom reported in 2019 that 79% of internet users aged 12 to 15 had at least one potentially harmful interaction online over the course of a year.
“As parents we instruct, guide and model behaviours for our children so that they can succeed and make a positive contribution to the world. We teach them all sorts of things to keep themselves safe and ensure they don't cause harm to others.”
Today, this crucial parental role must take into account the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Children today are citizens of both the physical and digital worlds. This necessitates that parents take a keen interest in making sure their children are tech savvy and that they effectively use the latest cybersecurity tools that keep families safer, notes Thornton.
There are three steps parents need to take to becoming cyber savvy:
Be informed - when it comes to your child's safety, ignorance is not bliss. Know exactly where they are engaging online through games, websites and apps on their phones. Understand those platforms, how they operate and the risks to minors. Make sure your kids are only playing age-appropriate games and don't let them sign up for social media accounts when they are under-age.
Talk to your kids about online safety - open, trusted communications are your best route to keeping your child safe online.
Just as you are in the physical world, be their first-line of protection in online spaces. Educate them about the risks and the warning signs. Let them know that they can and should come to you with their concerns. Educate them about privacy and the importance of not publishing or sharing their personal data, which includes your credit card details! Keep abreast of evolving cyber safety risks and talk through these as a family.
Deploy the latest cybersecurity tools - a parental control app is just one layer of security, and it can't possibly mitigate all the online risks.
The cybersecurity ecosystem for families is constantly evolving, and the most recent tools include AI-driven apps that can alert parents to potentially risky child engagements with people and content online across multiple devices. This enables the parent to intervene at the point of risk and initiate conversations and actions that will keep their child safer online.