With the entire family spending increasing periods online for education, work, social media, and gaming, online safety has never been more essential. Protecting children from cyberbullying and inappropriate content while safeguarding personal data against malware will keep everyone secure.
To learn more about keeping your family protected online, read our four key aspects of cybersecurity below.
Set Up Parental Controls
Websites, social media platforms, streaming sites, apps, and game consoles all have settings to restrict your children’s access to unsuitable content and manage screen time. Your WiFi and phone network will also have controls to block and filter content.
Your kids may be prompted to make in-game purchases for new character skins or additional features when gaming. To avoid them recklessly spending while gaming, turn off in-game purchases or set a low limit. If you’re concerned about them talking to strangers, turn off chat functions or limit it to a list of their friends from school.
Teach Children About Online Safety
Even with parental controls, your kids may be exposed to content and online threats that upset them. Regularly talk to them about their time online, like you would about their school day, to make them feel relaxed and able to share their experiences.
Teach your children to recognise the dangers of inappropriate, illegal content, including self-harm and extremism, and make sure they let you know if they’ve seen it. You should also stress the importance of treating the online world as if it were real, to steer clear of peer-to-peer pressure and conversations with strangers, including financial scams.
Secure Devices and Personal Data
There are several ways to safeguard your devices and login details. Ensure the entire family uses long, complex passwords managed by a password manager and that you have the master password or PIN for your children’s accounts. Simple, easy-to-guess passwords are at greater risk from brute-force attacks.
Keep your devices and software updated as soon as they become available. Upgrades contain security patches that fix vulnerabilities that criminals can exploit to gain unauthorised access to your devices, steal data, or install malware. You should also use anti-virus software that covers the entire household. This software scans systems for suspicious files and activity before quarantining or deleting malicious files.
Secure your Email
When signing up for a free email provider, make sure that you are using providers that offer the security you want to reduce the chance of anything harmful occurring. Apply the same principles to your email account that you use online, including security notifications, strong passwords, and only using secure devices.
If you’re worried about your account being hacked, consider a provider that offers email encryption. Two-step verification can be helpful if you have multiple email addresses. If a third party tries to log in to your account from an unrecognised device, your email will send you a code to your mobile that they won’t have, preventing them from signing in.
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