You love your kids, so protect them from identity thieves.
Educate
Once you understand how the vast majority of identity thieves operate, it becomes clear how important education is. Identity thieves are not brilliant hackers, as a rule; instead, they’re the digital equivalent of somebody who finds the spare key under the doormat and robs your house while you’re out. Simple digital self-defense, like never clicking on a link from somebody you don’t trust, and not sharing personal information with people you don’t know in real life, will stymie the vast majority of wannabe cyber-crooks. So walk your kids through how to protect themselves online.
Talk
You should regularly talk to your kids about where they go online, what they’re doing, and who they’re doing it with. Beyond just taking an interest in their lives, often you can help them spot the early warning signs of someone trying to get at their personal information. They also might be worried about the behavior of somebody they’ve met online, but aren’t sure how to find an opening to talk to you about it. And when major stories about identity theft or data breaches pop up in the news, that’s a great opportunity to talk to your kids about what happened and how to stop it.
Kids live life online these days, but they need to know how to stop would-be thieves.
Block
Another tactic is to simply take kid-hostile websites out of the equation with parental control apps. If you’re not satisfied with the privacy policy of some websites your children want to go to, or if you simply don’t trust them, then you can just block them and have done with it. The same is true of questionable online “friends” and even chat apps and other potentially risky apps in general. If you’re not happy with it, just install the software on any device they use to access the internet and that’ll be the end of it.
Limit
Finally, it makes sense, especially if your kids are dealing with somebody potentially abusing their trust, to just limit screen time altogether. Much like the number of miles driven in a car raises your risk of being in an accident, the amount of time you spend online exposes you to more risk of being scammed. So, have a screen time schedule, not just for the kids, but for the whole family. Modeling good behavior not only makes the rules easier for kids to follow, it’s also good for all of us to step away from crushing candies now and again.
Sitting down your kids and discussing internet safety is always a good idea, but even the smartest kid can be tricked if you’re not careful. To learn more about parental control apps, sign up for Screen Time.
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