BBB Shares Tips For Back-To-School Internet Safety

RALEIGH –  As you prepare to send your child back to school, do not forget to go over internet safety. With the ever growing presence of technology in classrooms, the Better Business Bureau of Eastern Carolinas (BBB) has tips for families to navigate online safety for children.

“Since the pandemic, one-to-one computing has increased in classrooms,” Mallory Wojciechowski, president and CEO of BBB, said. “You can’t be sure what your child is doing online all of the time, so it is best to educate them on the potential dangers they may encounter.”

BBB Offers the Following Tips for Parents Navigating Online Safety:

• Creating accounts online without permission. Some children will lie about their birth dates to create social media accounts. Keep track of the accounts your child is using and has access to. Social media is full of strangers with unknown intentions. Plus, many sites are designed to collect and sell unauthorized user details and behaviors to advertisers seeking targeted marketing.
• Contests and Giveaways. Contests and giveaways often collect a hefty amount of personal information on their entry forms. Many are thinly disguised ways of collecting personal or financial information that could lead to identity theft. Ensure your child doesn’t have access to banking or credit card information, and supervise the filling out of any forms.
• Phishing. Adults are not the only ones who receive spam and junk mail. Kids often get junk mail, and since they don’t have much online experience, they are more susceptible to clicking on links and answering questions they probably shouldn’t. 
• Understand apps. Certain apps might collect and share personal information about your child or target your child with ads. Even free apps may include paid features, and children may not understand that some apps or game features cost money since they were labeled free to download. They may click on these so-called free games and cost parents or guardians a hefty bill at the end of the month.
• File sharing sites. Many websites allow children to download free media. A child may not realize that these sites often come with the risk of downloading a virus, allowing identity thieves to access the gaming device, personal computer, or cell phone being used. From there, the cyberthief can track financial transactions, physical location, or even tap into the household WiFi without anyone knowing it.

Tips on How to Manage Online Privacy for the Family:

• Know about COPPA. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act protects the personal information of children under 13 on websites and online services—including apps. COPPA requires those sites and services to notify parents and get their approval before they collect, use or disclose a child’s personal information. However, if your nine-year-old tells Instagram they are 13 (the age requirement to use the app), this law won’t protect them.
• Know about FOSI. The Family Online Safety Institute brings an international perspective to our online lives’ potential risks, harms, and rewards. The Good Digital Parenting web portal is an excellent resource for families looking to educate online safety measures in the Internet age.
• Read privacy policies together and understand privacy settings. Parents can have their children read the privacy policies and terms of use of any apps they want. While there might be a little grumbling that the policies “are too long” or that “it takes too much time,” remind them of the importance of knowing what they are signing up for and insist that they are read. Then, learn and understand the privacy settings on each app and game.
• Don’t share your location. Nearly every app automatically tracks a user’s location. From placing an online order for fast food to playing an online game, review the apps on all your devices to see which ones are tracking your location. Then, if it’s not needed, look in the settings to see how to disable this feature. Advise a friend or family member to avoid geo-tagging their posts with their location. Why? For example, you don’t want to announce the fact your family is vacationing out of state while the house sits empty. A simple review of the geo-tagged post will reveal where you are.
• Use parental controls if necessary. Although the best way to keep a child’s online privacy safe is to teach them to manage it themselves, it doesn’t hurt to have their backs by using parental controls. Today Android, iOS, and most web browsers offer built-in features that allow parents to monitor their children’s online activities, but third-party apps are also available. Research the option that works best. Follow through with the child to explain why you’re monitoring their activities.
• Share with care, and remember, personal information is like money. What is posted online can last a lifetime: parents can teach children that any information they share online can easily be copied and is almost impossible to take back. Talk to them about who might see a post and how it might be perceived, and show them how anything they do online can positively or negatively impact other people. Sharing personal information can also give online thieves an idea of what login information or passwords might be used for banking or other online accounts. 
• Teach your kids the language of online privacy. Discover, together, the meaning of the most common terms found in privacy policies and terms of agreement: personal information, cookies, third party, license, user content, location information, log file information, monetization. Do a Google search if you don’t know what they mean.
  
  For more information visit BBB Back to School HQ and BBB’s Cybersecurity HQ.