With schools closed over the summer, young children and teenagers are expected to increase their average online activity to eight hours per day. To protect your child from becoming vulnerable in the digital world, McAfee and I-LIFE Digital Technology have compiled a list of ten top tips to follow this summer.
- Start conversations early and discuss how hackers steal and misuse data. Share stories about fake social profiles and kidnappers, and outline the consequences of connecting with strangers, even if it is a person of their own age.
- Keep location services off when not needed
- Share with care. Routinely scrolling, liking, and commenting on social sites such as Snapchat and Instagram can give kids a false sense of security (and power). Remind tweens and teens to share responsibly. Oversharing can damage a reputation and words or images shared callously can damage other people.
- Cybercriminals can use the popularity of video games to entice gamers to click on potentially malicious links. Remind them not to open email attachments or video/ message links. Try to limit or have anonymous profiles when playing online.
- Be suspicious of emails that have their name wrong or have spelling errors like ‘www.yhoo.com,’ Do not click on websites if they don’t start with ‘https.’
- Use two-factor authentication to make their account security stronger and change passwords regularly.
- Be suspicious of duplicate/ fake friend requests on social media.
- Repeat the cybersafety mantra often – STOP.THINK. SHARE. Ask them if they have faced social media issues like cyberbullying, fake news, cyberstalking and initiate conversations as to how these need to be tackled.
- Unplug and control how much time they spend on their device. Establish tech-free family activities this summer.
- Always protect and upgrade the software security.
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