Talking To Your Kids About Online Safety

With kids today spending so much time online, it’s incredibly important for parents to know just what their kids are up to. While the Internet can be a great tool for kids to learn and keep up with friends, one of the biggest mistakes kids make online is sharing too much personal information about themselves. It can be incredibly dangerous: many kids think they’re safe because they’re only sharing things with their friends, but they may not realize that there could be other people accessing their details as well.

The experts at the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) offer tips that can help you talk to your kids about how to make their time online safer. No matter what, never include identifying information like:

• Your full name
• School name
• Home address
• Home phone number

Once it’s online, personal information could be available forever, so it’s important to talk to your kids about these dangers. NCPC’s McGruff.org offers some great resources to help you teach your kids safe surfing strategies.