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Avast Blog_Tips & Advices: A comprehensive checklist for privacy-savvy parents
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Safety starts at home

We often teach our children the lessons that we learned ourselves when we were little...
  • Look both ways before crossing the street.
  • Don't talk to strangers.
  • Wash your hands before eating (true these days now more than ever).
Most of these lessons are about protecting our kids. But today as parents, we have a vast new world to explain and protect our kids from—one that our parents never had to worry about: The internet.

Kids today are growing up connected to the internet from the moment they're born — think about the many newborn baby photos you've seen on social media. Anyone who's watched a toddler navigate an iPad or browse YouTube videos understands just how innately kids click into devices. And teenagers today wouldn't be caught dead without a smartphone. 

It’s a constant emotional battle for many of us. One one hand, we might wish we could go back to simpler times, ditch social media, even toss our smartphones into the bin. On the other hand, we realize it’s our duty as parents to step up to the challenges we face today in order to protect our children from an ever changing technological world.

So how exactly do we protect our kid's online privacy? From a team that spent the past three years building what is now Avast Secure Browser, a browser with privacy and security at its core, here’s what we do in our own homes and what we recommend to our friends...

1. Be informed

First things first: We should always be educating ourselves. We can't teach our kids about online privacy if we don't know about it! The majority of American adults are woefully uninformed about online privacy, so we should approach this challenge as if we don't know as much as we should—and that our kids as they grow will try every trick in the book to find ways around the things that we do know. I’m reminded of that scene from Jurassic Park where Robert Muldoon, the park’s game warden describes the velociraptor’s mischievous behavior...

“They never attack the same place twice. They were testing the fence for weaknesses, systematically. They remember.” - Jurassic Park

Our children really are the joy and light in our lives. Oh, but they can still be little terrors sometimes, can’t they?!

Here's a list of basic online privacy terms we should all be familiar with. Even if you think you know what they mean, do a quick search to make sure you're up to date:
  • Phishing 
  • App permissions 
  • Location tracking 
  • VPN 
  • Public Wi-Fi
  • Metadata
  • Anti-virus
  • Sexting
  • Social media privacy settings
  • Cybersecurity
  • Malware
2. Lead by example

As with anything else with parenting, our actions speak louder than our words. If our kids see that we're sharing pictures of them without their permission, for example, then why would they ask to share pictures of others? Or ask others not to share pictures of them?

Take a parental timeout to really assess your own online habits. Where can you be better about privacy? Maybe it’s time to update your passwords or review your privacy settings on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram.

When we find areas that can use improvement, it’s good to turn that into a teachable moment with our kids. They'll see that we’re serious about online privacy and it will reinforce the lessons we've been teaching them. 

3. Explain what personal information is

The definition of personal information changes based on the age of your child. Young children should know as soon as they're online to never share their full name, address, or phone number with someone who has contacted them via the internet. Older children and teenagers need to have conversations about sexting (see below), photo sharing in general, social security numbers, and mobile phone numbers.

4. Talk about online stranger danger

Your kids probably know not to talk to strangers on the street. They should also know not to talk to strangers online. Set aside time to explain to them that sometimes grown ups might want to be "friends" on social media, and to talk to them about why it's not a good idea to be friends with those people. Discuss the different ways a stranger may reach out - direct messages, following them on Instagram or Snapchat, chat rooms, etc. — and work out a plan for what your kid can do when and if that happens. 
...
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