Parents & Caregivers

Welcome to B4UClick

Hi Parents & Caregivers

If you’re a parent, you know how tech-savvy your kids are. They grew up surrounded by technology. They can pick up a computer or phone and almost instantly know exactly how it works. They know more about hashtags, viral videos, and selfies than U.S. presidents, and they are constantly connected to the Internet in more ways than you can fathom.

The Internet makes it easy for people to share things and stay connected, but it also makes it easier to make mistakes and get into dangerous situations.But do they know how to be safe when they spend time online? Do they know what to do if they come across something or someone who makes them uncomfortable?

We know how much you care about keeping your kids safe from harm while they surf, play games, and talk to their friends online. We want these things, too. That’s why we’ve created this portal just for you.

Here you will find information regarding how you can take steps to protect your children’s online activities, including tips for monitoring and communicating with your child about the risks and dangers involved in some online activities.

One of the best ways to protect yourself and your children from malicious or inappropriate content is to set controls on web usage. There are several parent control tools that you can install on your browser or use on your computer that can track and monitor a variety of online activity. Below is what these controls have to offer:

  • Block websites – stops children from seeing or using certain types of websites
  • Set time limits – keeps track of how long your child is using the Internet so you can manage appropriate time limits
  • Search result filtering – filters out adult or inappropriate websites, images, videos, and other content from popular search engines like Google and Bing
  • Instant alerts – sends you an instant alert if your child tries to access inappropriate or blocked content online
  • Reporting tools – allows you to instantly report malicious or inappropriate content, spam, or abuse

It can be difficult to monitor and always stay on top of what your kids are doing online, so parental controls go a long way in helping you manage your kids’ online time while keeping them safe from external threats.

Your child uses the Internet for a variety of activities. No longer is the web just about sending emails or playing games—now people can connect with other people on social media sites, use instant messengers and chat rooms to build friendships and relationships, and even stay connected on their cell phones. The Internet has opened up so many opportunities for children to learn about the world around them. But it has also opened the door to certain risks that children can easily fall prey to if they are not careful. The following sections are designed to help you understand what your child is doing online and how you can keep them safe while they enjoy these activities.
Your kids probably spend most of their online time playing games. Online gaming has become a global phenomenon, allowing children to play games on their computers, through social networks, and even on their phones and tablets. Online games also allow children to connect with other players from around the world.   Just like any aspect of online activity, there are risks involved with playing games online.  

Talking/Chatting with Strangers

  Because many games are interactive, your children will be able to talk or chat with other players they meet. Most, if not all, of the people your children interact with on an online game will be people they have never met before. Depending on the site or game, players can be of similar ages or of a wide range of ages.   Many games have built-in chatting systems so players can talk to each other without having to leave the game. MMORPGs (Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) like World of Warcraft use chat rooms and instant messaging systems. Games on the Xbox and Playstation have voice chats so players can strategize in real-time.   No matter what type of chatting application is used in your child’s favorite game, it’s important to teach them about talking to strangers online. Make sure they know not to share personal information with anyone they meet in a game, including pictures of themselves.  

Gaming Addiction

  Online games are fun to play—that’s why kids love to play them! However, because games can help kids forget difficult times in school, at home, or with their friends, it’s easy to become addicted to the worlds within their favorite games. In fact, most online gamers will tell you that they primarily use games as an escape mechanism.   Gaming addiction is a condition that affects children and adults all over the world. The danger in excessive gaming is not in the act of gaming itself—it is in the effects that excessive gaming has on a child’s health and development. Look for these signs:
  • Disruption of Regular Life – A gaming addict will often shirk responsibilities like schoolwork and chores in order to spend more time playing. Often, they will stay up late into the night to play, getting little to no sleep and becoming tired during the day.
  • Withdrawal – Addicted gamers will become angry or upset when they are forced to be offline for a long period of time.
  • Cravings – An addicted gamer will be obsessed with the game, often talking about it at length when they are not playing.
  • Defensive Attitude – When asked about his or her time spent gaming, an addict will get defensive or upset or even outright deny the activity.
  • Loss of Time – Because games give gamers an escape from real life, gaming addicts often lose track of time when playing. They can sometimes forget to eat, use the bathroom, or perform responsibilities.
The best way to protect your children from gaming addiction is to limit their time on the computer or gaming console.
The Internet allows kids to connect with friends both near and far. Social networking sites, in fact, encourage children to connect with their friends so that they can share pictures, messages, and videos. Other websites also include social elements, like friend recommendations on shopping sites, favorite blogs on sites like Tumblr and Pinterest, and teammates and other players on gaming websites.   Your son or daughter’s definition of an online friend might be very different from your own. Often, tech-savvy kids will connect with or add people to their friends list that they don’t know outside of the web, like people they admire, people they regularly chat with, and friends of friends. Therefore, their circle of friends online might be much bigger than in real life.   The biggest thing to remember with online friends is that, once your child adds them, that person is able to see information about your child. Depending on how your child has set their profile, he or she could be giving out very personal information about his- or herself or your family.  

Social Networking Friends

  Several social networks, Facebook and Instagram included, encourage users to follow and add people to a friends list. This can either be reciprocal—both people have to agree to be friends—or unilateral, where someone simply follows another person’s updates.   No matter what social network your child uses, it’s important to know who they are adding to their friends list. Because people on friends lists often have special access to personal information and photos of your child, you want to make sure that your son or daughter is only adding people they know and trust.
Online, talking can mean a number of things: emailing, chatting in a chat room or instant messaging program, video chatting, or commenting on social network updates. Your child probably engages in a number of these activities while online, so it’s important to understand the risks involved when your child talks to someone they don’t know or shares too much.   Talking online can be very different than talking offline. Many people feel like they can be more aggressive or opinionated because the web provides a level of anonymity often not available in real life. However, this doesn’t mean that the consequences for rude, mean, or dangerous behavior online should be any different than the consequences offline.  

Instant Messengers and Chat Rooms

  Instant messengers and chat rooms allow people from all over the world to connect and chat about common interests. Most social networking and gaming sites include instant messengers on their sites so that users can easily talk to one another, either privately or publicly.   The danger in chatting applications like these is that they are instant, like their name suggests. Once a message goes out, it can never be deleted or edited. If someone says something inflammatory, rude, or even inappropriate, it is there for anyone to see.   It’s important to instruct your children that what they say on chats, either with their friends or people they will never meet offline, can still hurt or otherwise damage. Be sure they know what’s okay and not okay to share in chat rooms and chatting apps.  

Sharing Too Much

  Sometimes, children and teens can share too much information about themselves or others. If they feel they know someone really well while talking to them online, they might feel comfortable sharing personal information like their phone number, email address, or even personal photos. If your child doesn’t know this person offline, this can be a very dangerous situation.   Make sure you know who your children are talking to online. Discuss with them what’s safe and not safe to share with the people they meet, and make sure to make them aware of online predators.  

Online Predators

  Often, online predators will lie about their personal details, including their name, age, and gender, in order to gain the trust and friendship of a child talking to them online. If a child believes that the person they are talking to is a friend their age that shares their interests, they are more likely to talk about their personal details, revealing their name, their phone number, and even your home address.   Make sure to talk to your children about what is and what isn’t okay to share online, even with friends. Also be sure to teach them about what they can do if someone is pressuring them to talk about their personal details or share pictures of themselves.
There is a huge emphasis on sharing on the Internet. From photos to videos to a simple opinion, most websites and social media networks ask children to share things about themselves and their lives on a regular basis. This allows kids to feel like they have ownership and authority over how they appear to others online, but it can also mean that they are sharing too much information in an effort to look cool or interesting.   The most important thing to teach your children about sharing on the Internet is that, once something is uploaded or added to a website or social network, it can never truly be removed. No matter how many times a picture or video is deleted, it can always return later.  

Profile Pages

  On social networking sites, for example, kids fill out profiles all about them, adding information like their name, their phone number, and their email address. Most sites also allow users to upload profile pictures, encouraging people to use personal photos so they can be easily recognized by friends or acquaintances.   Depending on the privacy settings of the social network or forum, this personal information can be displayed to people not connected to your son or daughter. Sometimes, sites will even make the information searchable by search engines, meaning people doing searches on Google or Bing could stumble across your child’s profile.   Make sure you check your child’s profile when they sign up so you can stop them from sharing personal details about themselves or your family. Also make sure to set their privacy settings so that people not connected to them can’t see this information.  

Sexting

  Sexting is known as when someone sends a sexual image or text message to another person or group of people. Teens and young adults in relationships will sometimes engage in this activity with their significant other in order to create excitement.   The problem with sexting is that, once a message leaves your child’s phone, it is no longer in their control. The image or video can easily be shared—intentionally or accidentally—with other people through email, social networking sites, or a forwarded text. In an instant, an intimate message or picture intended for only one person can end up spread across the Internet.   This is especially dangerous if the child pictured is considered underage. Any sexually graphic photos or videos of a minor are considered child pornography. On the other hand, if the person in the picture is over 18, but the picture is shown to someone who is not, it’s considered showing sexually explicit content to a minor, which is illegal.  

File Sharing

  Websites known as P2P (peer-to-peer) allow people to upload and download files. These sites usually have popular television shows, movies, and music files available for free as an alternative to paid sites like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and iTunes.   There are several dangers in using P2P sites. First, many of the files are illegally obtained from sources that have copyright over the media. This is often referred to as pirated content. If your son or daughter is caught with illegally shared files, according to federal law, they can be sued and even serve jail time, depending on the severity.   P2P sites are also often inundated with spam and malicious files that can trigger computer viruses and hacking attempts. If your child does not know how to tell between a safe and an unsafe file download, they could be putting your computer and your important accounts at risk. For more information on how to secure yourself and your family against hacking, see our hacking guide.
Search engines like Google and Bing have become real parts of our lives. They help us answer questions and find things we’re looking for online, without having to track down tough information or answers ourselves. Search engines truly make our lives easier by giving us access to all the information we could ever want.   Because search engines regularly index (or find) webpages and information, they provide a compendium of information easily accessible to people using keywords to look for something. All websites can be found through a simple search—even websites you don’t want your children discovering.  

Using Parental Controls in Search Engines

  While it’s not possible for search engines to overlook certain websites, it is possible for you to add parental controls to protect your family from inappropriate or adult content. These controls include all facets of the search engine, including images and videos. Most safe search settings will be available in your personal account settings. Here are resources you can use to turn on the different safe search modes for two of the most popular search engines:
We bet your children treat their cell phone as an extension of their arm. They probably go everywhere with it, using it at all times to talk to friends, play games, and otherwise stay connected to what’s happening in their online networks.   Because smartphones like iPhones and Android phones allow kids to connect to the Internet at any time, they can do a number of things through their phone that weren’t available just a few years ago:
  • Searching and accessing websites
  • Uploading videos and images to websites and social networks
  • Chatting through instant messengers, chat rooms, and text/video apps
  • Mobile web-based gaming
  • Purchasing and downloading games and apps
  • Sharing statuses, pictures, and check-ins with GPS location technology
It’s more obvious than ever that phones are no longer used just to talk to people. Cell phones now help people stay connected to their world.  

Mobile Internet Safety

  No matter where someone is accessing the Internet, the same risks still apply. In fact, the risks may even be more so because cell phones put access right in our pockets and purses.   To keep your family safe on their cell phones, make sure you’re monitoring how they access the Internet and apps. Here are a few ideas on how you can effectively do that:
  1. Have your children ask permission before adding or purchasing a new app on their phone. This way, you can assess the safety and appropriateness of the app before they start using it.
  2. Set up safe search modes. This will protect your kids from access inappropriate or adult content through search engines or simply browsing the web.
  3. Discuss what’s cool and not cool to share. Sharing is at the heart of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Make sure your child knows what’s okay and what’s not okay to share.
  4. Learn how your child’s phone works. If you don’t know how your child’s phone works, you won’t know all the things they can do with it. Be sure to sit down and read the manual or have your child show you the features of your phone so you can better monitor their usage.

Sexting

  A majority of tweens and teens use their phones to take pictures of themselves, their friends, and their daily lives. They then send these pictures to each other or upload them to social networking sites like Instagram to show off to their connections.   However, a growing trend among kids aged 14-18 is called sexting. This is when someone takes a sexual or otherwise inappropriate picture and sends it to another person or a group of people. This is often done with a cell phone because teens feel that the picture can be kept and shared more privately through texts or picture apps (like Snapchat).   However, once an explicit or inappropriate picture is sent, either through a text message or any other means, it is no longer in the sender’s control. Even if it was only intended for a single person to view, the person on the receiving end can share it with whomever and however they wish.   This is especially dangerous if the sender is under the age of 18. Any explicit picture of a minor is considered child pornography by federal law, and the person sending and receiving sext messages like this can be in huge trouble with the law.

Just like an activity in life, there are a number of risks associated with spending time online. Kids are especially susceptible to online risks because of their exploring natures—they often click before thinking. Fortunately, you can help your kids learn how to be safe and reduce risks while they spend time online.

This section is designed to help you learn about some of the risks both you and your children face when you use the Internet for business, schoolwork, or just for fun. Each section has definitions, tips, and important information you can use to protect your household.

For a guide on how to start the conversation with your children about any of the risks you read about on this site, visit our Conversation Guide.

Cyberbullying is just like real bullying, except for the fact that it takes place through technology. Like any type of bullying, cyberbullying makes the victim feel alienated, targeted, or threatened by their peers. No matter where it happens—through emails, chat rooms, social networks, and even text messages— the effects are often devastating and long-lasting. Cyberbullying can take many forms, including:
  • mean or hostile messages sent in order to get a rise out of someone or threaten them
  • rumors spread through social networks, text messages, or chat applications
  • stealing account information for the sole purpose of changing their information or sending negative messages to others
  • spreading unflattering or suggestive pictures (either real or photoshopped) or videos of a person through social networks, emails, or text messages
The truth is that 1 in 3 kids have experienced cyberbullying or even threats online. And of those, over half didn’t tell their parents when it happened.  

The Signs of a Cyberbullying Victim

  Your child might not always be comfortable coming to you with what’s happening to them online. They might not even know that what they’re experiencing is really cyberbullying. Keeping an eye out for these signs can help you spot and stop a dangerous situation:
  • appears nervous when a next text, chat message, or notification appears
  • is uneasy or nervous about going to school
  • avoids talking about what they are doing when online
  • withdraws from friends, schoolmates, or family members unexpectedly
  • appears angry or upset after using the computer
  • stops using the computer or their phone altogether
If you notice any combination of these signs in your child, it’s time to start asking questions. Use our Communication Guide for a few talking points you can use to start the conversation and get to the heart of what’s happening.  

The Signs of a Cyberbully

  When children are bullied online, they are often bullied by other kids they know from school or from the websites and games they use regularly. Be aware of the following signs, which could indicate that your child is participating in cyberbullying activities online:
  • uses the computer obsessively
  • becomes increasingly aggressive toward you or other people
  • quickly switches or minimize windows if you enter the room or walk by
  • avoids talking about what they’re doing online
  • uses multiple accounts on a single website, or uses accounts they did not set up
  • becomes very upset or angry when they cannot use the computer or their cell phone
Any time you notice a change in your child’s attitude after being online for a while, it’s time to start talking about what’s going on. Use our Communications Guide for help starting the conversation around cyberbullying.  

What to Do if My Child is a Victim of Cyberbullying

  Cyberbullying is a serious problem. Because it takes place over the technology that your child uses all the time, it can affect virtually every aspect of their life. If you think your child is the victim of online bullying or a cyberthreat, you need to take action immediately.
  1. Talk to your child. Find out what’s really happening and how they feel about it. Offer reassurance, comfort, and emotional support and make sure to let your child know they don’t have to face this situation alone.
  2. Guide your child on how to gather evidence. Examples of messages your child has received from an online bully go a long way in proving that a dangerous situation is taking place. Help your child save text messages, screenshots, and other forms of communication, and ask your child if they think they know who has been sending the messages.
  3. Help your child block their bully. Blocking a bully from contacting your child on a website, social network, or chat room will prevent them from being able to talk to your child on that site. If necessary, you may need to contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or your cell phone service.
  4. Report the bullying to the appropriate authorities. Reporting videos, pictures, or other types of content to the website where it is hosted is often the only way to get it removed. If the content posted is illegal—if it contains inappropriate or sexual material of a child under 18—you should contact your local police department.
Cyberbullying should always be taken seriously. If your child comes to you and is scared, upset, or nervous about something happening to them online, listen and take action.
Many children use the Internet to find answers to questions they may not be comfortable asking their parents, their teachers, or their friends. One of these topics is sex, which is usually an uncomfortable or awkward topic for teens to discover and learn about from the adults in their lives. The Internet provides a way for teens to get answers to their questions; however, not everything they find will be correct, safe, or sensitive. In addition to answering questions about sex, the Internet also provides teens a way to experiment with and explore their own sexuality. In fact, many teens are prefacing entering into a sexual relationship with explicit activities online, like watching pornography or engaging in sexting.  

Sexting

  Sexting is a fairly new phenomenon among teens and tweens. It involves sending racy, sexual, or otherwise inappropriate images and texts to another person or a group of people. Many teens use it as a means of creating excitement or “spark” in their relationships with their boyfriend or girlfriend, but some also use it as a means to show their romantic interest in another person. Not all sexting happens because of a teen’s free will. Some will be pressured or even coerced into sending messages they are not comfortable sending; sometimes, they are afraid their boyfriend or girlfriend will break up with them if they don’t comply. Often, teens and tweens that go through this type of situation will feel embarrassed about what they have done, and will not be comfortable talking to anyone about it. The real danger in sexting is that, once the picture or message is sent, the sender no longer has control over the message. What was originally meant for a single person could, either intentionally or accidentally, be shared on a social network, spreading to an entire group or school without the sender’s knowledge. Images can even go viral or end up on a site other than the original post, making removal of the image difficult if not impossible. Another big problem with sext messages is that they are considered child pornography if the sender is a minor (under the age of 18). Both the sender and the receiver can be held legally responsible under the law, because these images are considered to be child pornography.  

Pornography

  Pornography, whether it is legal adult material or illegal child material, is easy to find online. Through keyword searches or a misplaced or malicious link, children can easily stumble on a site not meant for their eyes, no matter if they meant to do it intentionally or they came by it on accident. By law, sexually explicit material cannot be shown to minors or children under the age of 18. Pornographic websites usually have entrance gates that prevent children from seeing content not meant for them, but these gates are easily bypassed by smart and savvy teens. Teens can even bypass the parental controls you might have in place to protect them from this type of adult content. The problem with teens viewing pornography is that it often leads to developmental problems. Because of the nature of pornographic films and images, teens can easily develop self-esteem and body image issues based on how they look versus how a porn star looks on screen. Without the guidance of a parent or teacher on matters like this, teens can also develop a warped sense of what a true sexual relationship is comprised of based on the situations depicted in porn films.
You already know this, but not all sites on the Internet are appropriate for children. Pornographic, violent, and hateful sites do exist, and kids can easily find them through search engines, clicking on a misplaced or malicious link, or simply by surfing. There are steps you can take to try and block these types of websites from reaching your children. However, if your child does come across something inappropriate, there are also steps you can take to help them understand what they have seen.  

How to Protect Your Children from Inappropriate Content

  Even before your children begin using the Internet, either on a computer or their phone, you should have a discussion about which websites are okay and not okay for them to use. In addition to talking to them, you can also do the following:
  • Install blocking, filtering, and monitoring apps or software on your browser or computer. These will allow you to control which websites your children can access, and block sites you deem inappropriate.
  • Monitor your children’s time online. Make sure you know which websites they are visiting, including at school, at friends’ houses, or any other place where they connect.
  • Regularly discuss web safety with your children. This will help them be more aware about dangers and how they can avoid them.
Another important aspect of keeping your kids safe online is to foster communication. Often, children are afraid or nervous to go to their parents about something they have seen because they are afraid of the consequences. If you actively monitor and talk to your kids about these types of situations, they will be more likely to come to you when something makes them uncomfortable.  

What to Do if Your Child Discovers Inappropriate Content

  At some point, either accidentally or on purpose, a child will come across content not meant for their eyes to see. It’s easy to do—misspelling a web address, accidentally clicking on a bad link, or using a keyword search in Google. The best thing you can do as a parent is be prepared for this type of situation and know how to talk to your child about what they have seen. The danger in pornographic, hateful, or otherwise inappropriate websites is that they can negatively influence your child’s development, affecting their self-esteem, body image, and how they view the world. Use our Conversation Guide for tips on how you can start the conversation about inappropriate content with your child.
One of the dangers of the Internet is that, once you upload or post something to a website, it is instantly shared with anyone who can find it. A picture uploaded from your home today could end up being found by someone across the world tomorrow, and there’s no telling how that person might use the picture. It’s important to teach your children to think before they click—to make sure their message doesn’t reveal too much.  

Instructing Your Kids on What Not to Share

  Essentially, when you share something online, you’ve lost control over how it is used. Once a picture, statement, or video is uploaded to a website or social media network, it is technically there forever. Even if you remove it from the website, other people could have saved it and shared it somewhere else. This is important lesson to relate to your children. Help them to understand that they have to think before they click the send or upload button, especially if the message, picture, or video contains something personal, inappropriate, or hurtful. What starts as a something between a boyfriend and girlfriend or between friends can easily turn into a viral message spread across an entire school, city, or even country. Additionally, teach your children about the importance of privacy online. They should never share personal information like their name, their phone number, or your home address with anyone they meet online, even if they’ve known them for a long time or feel they can trust them. They should keep credit card information, passwords, and any other sensitive information private as well. For more information on teaching your kids about thinking before sharing, check our Conversation Guide for questions and talking points you can use to start the conversation.
Computer viruses are an unfortunate part of spending time online. Some viruses are very mild and affect very little, but others can ruin your computer or hack into important accounts you use all the time. A computer virus can be picked up just about anywhere: clicking on a misleading link, downloading a suspicious file, or simply visiting a certain website. They are not just found on “bad” websites—they can also be found on reputable websites like news sources, gaming sites, and child-specific sites. Here are a few ways you can help protect your computer from catching a virus:
  • Install virus- and malware-blocking software to your computer. You can also add pop-up blockers and malware scanner apps to your browsers to stop potential viruses from affecting you online.
  • Know what to do to stop the virus. It’s almost inevitable that, at some point, you will get a virus on your computer. Knowing the steps to remove it or who to call if you need help can help you minimize the damage.
  • Instruct your children about viruses. Children are especially susceptible to finding or downloading viruses because they don’t know what they are or how to tell the difference between something suspicious and something safe. Make sure you’re teaching your children about virus safety and what not to click or download.
One of the great things about the Internet is that is has made our lives so much easier, allowing us to do things like pay our bills and shop online. However, the Internet has also made identity theft much easier. Hacking, or stealing someone’s password and hijacking their account for important information, is the main way identity theft is performed online. Hackers have programs that can guess password data and security questions, using the personal data they find to steal from you, open fraudulent accounts, or sell your information to another person. These are the common ways hackers use to get into online accounts:  

Impersonation/Fraud

  You know those emails you occasionally get asking for your account information? These are fraudulent messages sent by hackers to try and trick people into giving up their information. Hackers especially like to impersonate moderators or website administrators because people are more likely to respond to someone from the site. If you ever receive an email asking for your username, password, or any other type of personal information, do not reply. Real administrators and moderators have access to this through the site and will never contact you asking for it.  

Phishing

  Phishing, pronounced “fishing,” is a tactic used to get you to fill out your account information or personal details through a pop-up, spam message, or fake website. They most often take the form of a fake site that looks almost exactly like the real copy.  

Pharming

  Pharming, pronounced “farming,” is the most sophisticated form of hacking because it uses malicious code to hijack a normal website. The code redirects or sends anyone who lands on the website to a fake site where the hacker can gain the information they need.  

Malware/Spyware

  Malware and spyware are two types of online viruses you can pick up without even knowing. Depending on their strength, they can access personal information stored on your computer, or collect information as you type it in to forms and websites online.  

How to Protect Your Accounts from Hackers

  Hacking is devastating if it happens to you. Fortunately, you can easily protect your important accounts by practicing a few good habits:
  • Choose strong passwords. Password1234 probably isn’t a good choice to protect your account. Choose a password that uses a lot of capitalization, punctuation, and numbers. You want your password to be difficult to guess.
  • Change up your passwords every so often. If you change your passwords every few months, you’ll be keeping potential hackers on their toes. This will also ensure that even if someone did access your account without your knowledge, they won’t be able to as soon as you change your password.
  • Use different passwords on different sites. We know how hard it is to remember different passwords. But if you use the same password on, say, your banking website and your Amazon account, a hacker who guesses the password will be able to access both accounts and all the information stored in them.
  • Stay alert! You are your best defense when it comes to hacking prevention. Any time you notice suspicious activity in your account, report it right away and change your password. Also be sure to take note whether or not the lock symbol appears when you’re making transactions online— this ensures the site is protecting your information securely.
It’s important that anyone who uses the computer in your household, especially children, know these tips to prevent hacking attempts.  

How to Teach Your Kids about Hacking

  Because children often see the Internet as a place where they can openly share things about themselves, they can often be more easily tricked into giving up important information to hackers. It’s important to instruct your children on what they should and shouldn’t share online (or in real life!). Here are the things you and your children should NEVER share online:
  • Credit card numbers
  • Social Security numbers
  • Account passwords
Additionally, instruct your children on how to choose safe usernames. They should never be using their real name, their birthday, or a potential answer to a security question in their account usernames. (The same goes for you, too!) For more tips on how to talk to your children about staying safe from hackers, use our Conversation Guide for talking points and starter questions.  

What to Do if You’ve Been Hacked

  Don’t panic. You can minimize damage to your accounts by acting quickly and calmly.
  1. Change your password. This will prevent a hacker from being able to access your account again. If you have been locked out of your account, contact the website administrators for help.
  2. Run a virus scan. Often, a hacking attempt can be squashed if you get rid of the access point— usually a virus. Run a virus scan on your computer to get rid of any viruses you might have obtained from a hacking attempt, or any viruses placed on your computer by a hacker.
  3. Contact your bank. If you believe your credit card information has been stolen, or you’ve noticed a fraudulent charge on your card, contact your bank immediately. They can temporarily shut down your account to prevent more charges.
  4. File a report with law enforcement. Identity theft is a serious crime, and reporting what’s happened to you can help law enforcement stop your hacker from hurting other people.

The first and often most important step in keeping your children and your family safe from online risks is to open the lines of communication between yourself and your child. Healthy dialogue about the activities your child is doing online, as well as the potential dangers they could face during those activities, will go a long way in making your child feel safe and secure talking to you about important issues.

The truth is, only 1 in 10 children will tell their parent or guardian if they have been a victim of cyberbullying. Even less will approach a parent or family member about inappropriate content, online predators, or pressure from their friends and peers to do things they don’t want to do online. If you can talk to your child before a critical or dangerous situation arises, you can help them know to come to you if they need help.

In this section, we provide ways you can discuss web safety and risks with your children, no matter their age. Use our resources on the following pages to help you start the conversation.

Talking is usually a great first step to protecting your children from Internet risks and dangers. Before implementing parental controls or limiting the time your child spends online, make sure you talk to your child and let them know why you’re doing what you’re doing. This will help them to understand that the controls you’re putting in place are there to keep them safe, not to punish them.  

Learning Your Child’s Habits

  If you don’t know how a website, game, or social network your child uses works, it can hinder how you monitor their activity. By sitting down and asking your child to guide you through the site and how they use it, you can effectively learn about how the site works as well as how your child spends their time there.   Here are a few questions you can ask to get the conversation started:
  • Why do you like this site?
  • What things can you do on this site that you can’t do on other sites?
  • Do you have any friends that use this site with you?
  • How is your profile set up?
  • Do you know how to report things if you’re ever uncomfortable?
These questions open up great communication channels with your child, helping you to stay up-to-date with their activity while learning about what your child likes to do at the same time.  

Making Agreements about Usage

  An interactive and open way to hold your child accountable for their time spent online is to come to an agreement about their Internet usage and time. This can be written or verbal.   Some considerations to include in your agreement:
  • A reasonable amount of time your child can spend online each day
  • Health considerations, like taking breaks between games and online activities
  • What’s okay and not okay to share, for pictures, videos, and other types of content
  • How your child can add friends to their friends lists (if they need permission from you first)
  • Who your child can talk to if they are ever concerned by something they see online, including the resources located on B4UClick
 

Online Videos

  Online videos are a great way to start a conversation with your child about web safety. You can use our video resources, which cover all kinds of topics, or you can search for instructional or educational videos yourself through sites like YouTube. Check out our web safety videos!
It’s important to set limits on your child’s Internet usage. Unsupervised, children can access inappropriate content, share personal information, or otherwise endanger themselves and your family through their online activities. That’s why it’s so important to know how your child is using the web, where they are going, who they are talking to, and what they are sharing with the people in their networks.   A few considerations you should remember when setting Internet limits for your family:
  • What is a reasonable amount of time for children in my child’s age group to be using the Internet?
  • Where else can my child access the Internet?
  • Does my child primarily use the web for recreation or for school?
  • What types of sites and activities does my child enjoy online?
The most important thing to remember when setting limits is to discuss changes with your child. Be open and honest about why you’re placing limits on their time or the sites they can visit. The more your child trusts you, the more likely they are to come to you if they need help or are uncomfortable with something that’s happened online.

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