Teaching Internet Safety to Children, Teens and the Elderly

Posted on: Nov 1, 2022 | 3 mins | Written by: HDFC ERGO Team

Teaching Internet Safety to Children, Teens and the Elderly

Internet Safety Tips for Children, Teens and Elderly

School-going children and teens do go online quite a lot for help with homework, for games, for social media and so on. Similarly, the elderly are now enjoying social media websites as well as online shopping platforms. These tools were designed for precisely this kind of usage. However, there are a lot of miscreants who can make things difficult for everyone. Teaching your children and elderly about internet safety is the first step and buying cyber insurance in India is the next. The following safety tips combined with cyber insurance will ensure safe internet usage for everyone.

Safety Tips for Children and Teens

There is a wide range of tools and strategies that are available for you to choose from when it comes to keeping your young one safe on the internet. Here are some of the possible strategies that you can try for kids.

● Make use of search engines that are safe for children. Child-friendly search engines such as Kidtopia or Kiddle are good examples of the same. You can even start using content providers that offer children-friendly content such as YouTube Kids, CBeebies, ABC Kids, KIDOZ, or even Messenger Kids.

● Most streaming services offer the ability to create different profiles. If you use any of them, make sure to create a separate profile for kids, this will keep them away from inappropriate content.

● Check the details of games, TV programs and websites to verify if they are safe for children or not. You can look at online reviews the get the details.

● Ensure that you block the ability to make a purchase in-app or one-click payments on your smartphone.

● Creating a family plan can be a great idea to teach internet safety. You can create the family plan along with your kid and take their input as well. The plan can contain things such as areas in the house that are screen-free and programs and applications that are safe for your kids to use. You can even include internet safety rules like not giving out your personal information. Having cyber insurance can be helpful if they accidentally share information.

● Another habit that you can inculcate is to be near your child when they use the internet. This will help you be aware of what they are using online and you can quickly take any actions if there is a need. If something upsets or concerns them, you can also find that out.

● It is important to be aware of the steps for making complaints about online abuse.

● Most apps and browsers have parental controls. Do not shy away from exploring those as well as privacy settings and location settings. You should also try to limit the video and camera options so that they accidentally do not click photos of themselves or others.

● If you have more than one kid, encourage the older siblings to help the younger ones to use the internet safely. Keeping an open conversation about it can be quite fruitful and helpful.

Safety Tips for Elderly

If you want to help your elderly parents or other elders in the family to use the internet safely, here are some tips.

● One of the most important tips is not to ever share your password with anyone. Unless you have someone designated in the family or someone trustworthy who handles your accounts. Make use of strong and unique passwords, which is difficult to crack. You can follow some of the standard protocols for creating a password, such as keeping them at least 8 characters long.

● If you have used any services or websites, there are chances that you might receive promotional emails from them. Though receiving spam emails isn’t dangerous, it can be quite annoying. And in some cases, might contain malicious content. If you aren’t sure about any of them, you can mark them as spam. For an added level of safety, you can opt for acyber security policy.

● Being bullied online is not limited only to children. Even elders can be subject to bullying, receive threatening messages or emails, and receive abusive or accusatory messages. It is important that you do not respond to such messages, but rather reach out to someone who you trust or someone from law enforcement for help. You can also report such behaviour with the website or service that you are using.

● There are a lot of ways of scamming people online, especially the elderly. A common form of such scams is receiving emails or calls about money that you owe to a government department. Unless you are certain, do not entertain such interactions. Online dating services are another place where one can be subject to scams. Infected computer scam is another popular mechanism that scammers employ. Being aware of these scams can help you avoid some. However, opting for a cyber security insurance policy is a more prominent step.

● Since online shopping is quite common these days, it is an easy way for scammers and spammers to make quick money. As a responsible elder, ensure that you do not click on any links from social media, banks, government, emails, etc. unless you are certain about the sender. Phishing is a common scamming, where you follow a link that looks legitimate, but it isn’t and it steals your credentials. A cyber insurance policy is a must if you are an elder and want to steer clear of phishing.

● Since there are hundreds and thousands of sellers and websites online, make sure you buy things only from reputed and known places. Not being careful with the vendor can lead to your financial information being stolen or you not receiving the products that you had ordered. Also, look for websites that are secure, i.e., contain https and not http in the address bar of the browser.

● If you want to donate money to some cause, make sure you do your research before sending any money. It is always a good habit to find out if the cause that someone is raising money for is genuine and legitimate. You must also try to read the fine print of the organization or clause.

● For the people that you have met online, take additional precautions while talking or sharing important information. If you do happen to meet in person, ensure that it is in a public place. And refrain from sending money of any kind to them, even if they are in dire need. Since these are common methods of scamming people. Also, do not ignore any red flags such as someone professing feelings instantly or using pictures that look too good to be true.

Conclusion

There are a lot of miscreants available online, who can make the experience a bitter one for both children and elders. However, there are a few safety tips and precautions that you can carry out to stay away from such occurrences. If you are worried about the internet safety of your children or elderly parents, you can buy cyber insurance in India. These cyber insurance policies will keep you and your loved ones safe from the perils of the internet.

Disclaimer: The above information is for illustrative purpose only. For more details, please refer to policy wordings and prospectus before concluding the sales.

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