Back to School Digital Safety Tips
Kids are back in school, which means that many of them will be spending more time on their devices, both for study and for recreation. As part of our Year of Digital Safety, here are some tips for parents and caregivers to help keep your kids safer online:
Start the conversation early. Talk with your kids about the risks of sharing personal information, cyberbullying, online predators, and phishing scams.
Practice safe communication. Teach your kids to limit online communication as much as possible to people they know in real life and to tell a trusted adult if they are contacted by a stranger.
Set up a family password. Train your kids to ask for the password to verify that the person they are communicating with is a trusted family connection.
Limit social media connections. Have your kids set their social media profiles to private and try to limit followers to only those they know in real life. As a parent or caregiver, be mindful about your own social media settings. Consider keeping your profiles private, too, to protect your children’s and family’s privacy. If your profiles are public, avoid posting anything that reveals personal information.
Agree on boundaries. Create a family media agreement that outlines rules for device usage. Use this template from Common Sense Media as a starting point.