Whether your child is in primary school or a teenager, you need to tell them a few basic guidelines. For example, you can start by telling them that anything shared once on the Internet stays there forever and that nothing is 100 per cent private.

First tell your child what “personal information” means. Draw up a list for them and tell them clearly that they should always consult with you before sharing those details with any website or person on the Internet.

Children at a young age start creating their own email accounts these days. Although such email websites alert users to choose strong passwords, advise your child on what kind of passwords to choose. Tell them that the password could be a mix of characters and special symbols and ask them never to share their passwords with anyone (except perhaps with you). Diceware is an easy to use password methodology, where you roll a six-sided die five times and use the results to pick five random words from the list.

Children spend a lot of time on social media, so it’s important to let them know what is okay to share and what isn’t. Have a talk with your child and discuss what they should not share on social media, and remind them that everything stays forever on the Internet. If you want to take an extra step in securing your child’s online privacy, create fake social media names for them and fake school/city name.

Sending messages and videos on IM clients like Messenger, Telegram, Snapchat or Whatsapp is a norm now, but children don’t always know that their chats are not 100 per cent private. Therefore, you should advise them never to share personal or bank details or other sensitive information like passwords via messages. Whatsapp, however, now offers end-to-end encryption to keep your photos and messages secure.

If your child is old enough to understand this, share the latest news about identity thefts or personal hacks with them to make them aware of the dangers they face while using the Internet.

Kids love free Wi-Fi ­ who doesn’t? Cafes, shops, and some malls might have unsecured Wi-Fi networks. Explain to your kids to be especially cautious when connecting to these networks ­ as they can easily be monitored. One of the best ways to safely use public Wi-Fi is by installing a Virtual Private Network (VPN). You can pre-install a VPN on a mobile device (see next tip) and teach kids to turn it on whenever using public Wi-fi.

For better protection, install a VPN service on the device they use to encrypt their online communication data. VPN, or Virtual Private Network, creates a connection tunnel that automatically encrypts all the data coming in and out of your device, and effectively protects anyone using the Internet. NordVPN is very user-friendly. All you have to do is press the ON button and you are connected.

NordVPN works on up to six devices, so it can be shared by the family. It offers double data encryption, and has just launched a new NordVPN Mac and Android app that provides a unique algorithm, allowing to automatically connect to the fastest server. Another key feature of NordVPN is zero log policy, which keeps you 100 per cent anonymous online. For more information, visit www.nordvpn.com.

Agree to install games together with your children. Research to see if the game and the provider are reputable. Make sure you download the games only from a reputable source after reading some reviews. Too often, fake games are uploaded online and are designed to be colourful to grab children’s attention. They’ll be excited to install them for free, and you may realise too late that it’s in fact malware that could infect your device.

The Internet is as social as ever. New chat rooms and forums uniting different interest groups are popping up every day. As kids are eager to discuss their interests with peers, it is important to speak to them about sharing one’s private information. Under no circumstances should they share any pictures, addresses, etc.

All that sparkles is not gold. If your children receive an email about a great offer like a free cell phone or concert tickets, it’s probably a trick designed to get one to give up personal information. Again, advise them to always show you such emails and never to respond to them.

Users looking for a sneak-peek of the latest TV series should be cautious and only download directly from a reliable source. The safest thing to do is to wait for the official release instead of visiting a third-party website that could contain malware.

Apply system and application updates as soon as they are available. Very often the operating system and application updates include security fixes. Applying updates is an important step to help ensure devices stay protected.

McAfee Total Protection is a comprehensive security solution that can help keep devices protected against malware, phishing attacks, and other threats. It includes McAfee WebAdvisor which can help protect against going to malicious websites.

Kids are fans of celebrities too, so ensure that limits are set on the child’s device and use software that can help minimize exposure to potentially malicious or inappropriate websites.

READ MORE:
5 Ways To Make The Internet A Kinder Place
11 Must-Know Tips To Protect Your Privacy While Shopping Online
4 Signs Of An Online Scam

(Text by bauersyndication.com.au / Additional reporting by Sylvia Koh and Elizabeth Liew)