Parental Controls and Privacy Settings are useful tools to help minimise the risks your children may face, but they are not 100% effective. It’s really important to teach your child skills like critical thinking and resilience, so they know what do if they encounter risk. Always encourage them to talk to you about anything they find upsetting online.
Stay Safe
Online threats can easily spill into the real world. If you fear for your child’s safety, contact the police.
Do Something
Your child expects protection to mainly come from you, so if the bullying persists, report it to authorities whether it’s the school or the police.
Eagerly Observe
Sit with your child to understand what they are doing, what games they are playing, and how they are interacting with others on the internet.
Update
Keep all your devices at home up to date. Don’t configure it and forget. This will help you stay protected against the latest cyber threats.
Enable MFA
Drastically boost your security by following a few steps and adopting simple habits. Multi-Factor Authentication is help services ensure that you are who you say you are when logging in. This may help protect your account even if your password is leaked or stolen.
Report Phishing
The best approach to fight cybercrimes is by reporting phishing attempts whether it is at your work email or personal.
Use Secure WiFi
Limit your activities on public wireless networks and hotspots.
Backup
Make sure to always have a backup and periodically check your backups. Valuable data like your music, pictures, documents, and any other digital information should be stored safely first and then backed up.
Share with Care
Be careful what you post online. You might reveal a lot of personal information without knowing it.
Privacy
Always check the privacy settings for the applications that they are using. They are usually updated frequently so you need to check frequently as well.
Sharenting
Studies have showen that the average child has their picture shared on online 1,300 times before the age of 13, which is before they are allowed to create their own social media accounts. Moreover, about half of parents share pictures of their children online, the majority of which takes place before they reach the age of five.
