Better Safe Than Sorry
A friend of mine moved abroad couple of years ago. Since she is “my person”, as Cristina Yang says in Grey’s Anatomy, we stayed in touch. Thanks to digitalization this is quite simple these days, although I’m missing having a coffee with her in person.
We tend to talk about a lot of things, gossip, support each other and sometimes have philosophical discussions on current events happening around the world. One of our recent talks has made me wonder about a topic of kids’ online safety, cybersecurity safety in particular.
I have known about cybersecurity as much as most of us do. I’m an average user of Internet, applications, social media. I read now and then an article about some website or business being hacked and information being stolen, possible lawsuits.
I do try to be cautious about which information I leave online, passwords, cookies settings (yes, I do check them before clicking), just in case. Better safe than sorry.
What I haven’t been thinking a lot about is how to actually educate my kids about the digital world and threats that exist in it. Now, they are only five and are still not allowed to use electronic devices but eventually that day will come, and my husband and I need to be prepared for it.
How to prepare yourself in order to transfer that knowledge and teach your kids about digital security?
It’s much easier to explain to them that they need to look left and right before crossing the street, not to talk to strangers, or put their fingers in electric sockets. Those and other dangers of real-life world are tangible for us, we are aware of possible risks, after all our parents were teaching us the same, even some fairytales are doing the same.
Nobody taught us about the dangers of online world, and we are the ones that have to teach it to our children.
Of course, we are aware of some dangers: cyberbullying, inappropriate websites, sexual predators, online scams, malware and many more.
The key to success is an open and honest relationship and communication in which parents can explain to their kids the dangers appropriate for their age. This is challenging since it may involve some not so comfortable conversations. If you search online, you will find numerous websites talking about some of these topics (cyberbullying for example).
But what about other topics that even we ourselves do not understand that much: how are you going to explain to your child about malware or ransomware? How much do you know about it?
Do you use two factor authentications for your accounts?
How long are your passwords? Are they the same for every account?
How many applications or websites do you have where you never log off?
How many passwords have you saved in your smart phone or in an application for password storage?
How often do you clean your browsing history?
And last but not the least, what information are you sharing in the online world?
Think about the risks in case your information would somehow fall into the wrong hands, what somebody might do with it. I don’t think any of us can actually comprehend something like that before it happens to us or someone we know.
This is why we have to act cautiously in the online world and learn about possible threats and risks before we can teach our children how to behave online. The only way to do that is by acting responsible and learning new things continuously. Don’t be lazy, change your password often, make it a bit more complicated.
Browse a bit from time to time. Figure out what is going on in the cybersecurity world. Have there been any attacks by hackers on the website you are using? Or perhaps an airline carrier you travel with? What kind of information had been breached? Has your information of any kind been compromised?
The world is changing so rapidly. Digitalization is inevitable, artificial intelligence will most likely very soon become a part of our lives. We are embracing changes as they happen, faster than before. Journey of transformation and digitalization is not even halfway through. We are unaware of the potential risks it brings.
We are changing along with the world, resistance to novelties exists but as new technologies are becoming part of our lives, we are learning how to live with them. Even our parents and grandparents are becoming more and more tech savvy nowadays.
With all of these digital changes comes responsibility. Responsibility that is on us individually: to find a way to understand it, get informed, learn and act responsible so that we can teach our children how to act in the same way.
So, next time you are asked if you’d like two factor authentication or to change your password don’t roll your eyes. Do it and make it a habit since this is the only way you will be able to teach your child to do the same and accept it as a norm in the digital world.