Safe Remote Learning: How to Protect Your Children and Data
If you’re a parent, then you certainly must be going through some challenging times when it comes to your child’s education. Remote learning has become a regularity during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has brought some new responsibilities to the majority of parents.
The biggest victims of this new routine are children — over 1.2 billion kids and high school students around the world had to quickly adapt to e-learning by using different digital platforms, therefore giving up the enjoyment and advantages of traditional face-to-face learning, such as playing, connecting and exchanging ideas with their classmates and teachers.
Although already tough on everyone, this situation brings up yet another issue, a question that requires our full attention — how well are our children protected online? Even though this has been a problem for decades, it is essential to teach our children about cyber hygiene now more than ever, since they will be spending twice as much time on the internet due to their school obligations.
Children, especially K-12 students, are often preferred as targets for scammers and hackers due to their lack of understanding of the internet hazards, and as most of them are using their home devices to continue their education during the pandemic, they are being more exposed to these threats. We prepared some tips and tricks on how to protect your children and your family’s data, not only during remote learning but during all times when your family members are using the internet.
- Educate your children about cyber hygiene — Cyber hygiene is as important as general hygiene, so don’t avoid the opportunity to educate your children about it. They must learn how to recognize phishing texts and emails or a malware threat. By teaching your kids about internet dangers, they will self-create a better practice of it. In case you receive a phishing email, don’t be afraid to show it to them. This will help them recognize the patterns of phishing attacks and the habit of thinking twice before believing something they receive or read online. Also, teaching your kids about the importance of strong and secure passwords would be extremely helpful. This way, you will protect your family’s valuable data from unauthorized use or breach.
- Set up restrictions on app store purchases and installments — Due to our family’s increased screen time as a consequence of social distancing and remote learning, it is necessary to apply some parental control on different applications our children use and enlighten them about the dangers of unauthorized use. Many well-known apps violate children and adults’ privacy, such as TikTok, which was fined 5.7 million dollars by the U.S. government for the allegations of illegally collecting personal information from children under the age of 13, such as their full names, email addresses, and their location. In July 2020, South Korea fined TikTok for the same allegations. Another disturbing fact is that a recent study, which tested over 6,000 Android gaming apps, proved that nearly 50% of them were in violation of COPPA, or better known as Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires the Federal Trade Commission to enforce and issue directives regarding the online privacy of children under the age of 13. Also, one of the piracy tracking organizations reported a 43% growth of pirated movies in one month only, between late February and late March, which matches the time when the WHO (World Health Organization) announced COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
- Update the devices your children use for remote learning — If your devices are not regularly updated and are functioning on outdated software, the chances of getting attacked with various malware threats increase proportionally. Web browsers, which we all use to access the information on the internet, need to be regularly updated since they are also an often target of malware hackers. The best way to be certain that your children are safe from these dangers is to check their devices and make sure all software is updated to the latest version.
- Create a guest wifi network for your children — Guest wifi network serves as a separate access point on your router, and it is immensely helpful when it comes to protecting your data. It is the safest way to provide your friends and acquaintances with the internet, without allowing their potentially malware-infected devices to reach your personal data. This is a great solution for your children since they are now more than ever exposed to cyber threats, which may compromise your family’s data.
- Install antivirus software and back up your data — Having an antivirus installed on your computer is never a mistake — therefore, make sure to install it as soon as you can, if you haven’t already. Also, it is important to update your antivirus software on a regular basis, to protect you and your family from the brand new cyber menaces. Another thing worth mentioning is to find a backup solution that suits you the most when it comes to protecting your family and/or work’s data from vanishing into thin air, in case your devices get broken or infected by malware.
- Educate your children about cyberbullying — Educating our children about cyberbullying should not be ignored, especially nowadays, when it can potentially become a huge problem for e-learning students. We cannot protect our children from getting cyberbullied, but we can teach them the importance of informing their parents as soon as it happens and teaching them how to successfully handle those situations according to their age, such as blocking and reporting their cyber bullies. We should also use content monitoring programs that can automatically detect cyberbullying occurrences and risky behaviors and provide our children with safe online experiences.
We prepared a list of some of the best tools you can use to protect your children’s internet safety as well as your family’s data:
Computer safety software:
Parental control programs:
- Qustodio
- Kaspersky Safe Kids
- Norton Family
- Circle Home Plus
- Mobicip
- Net Nanny
- McAfee Safe Family
- Family link by Google
Tatjana Lukic, Project Assistant at Bridgewater Labs
