04 Feb Online Safety Tip
What is personal information?
Personal information is any information that can be used to identify your child.
It includes obvious things like their name and email address, date of birth, or where they live. It can also include some less obvious things, like who their family and friends are, where they go to school, or a photograph or video showing what they look like. Online it also includes their username and password.
Personal information also includes bank or payment details – although most of the time this will be your information, rather than your child’s.
How can you help protect your child?
1. Talk to your child about safe sharing. Talk to your child about personal information – what it is and when it is safe to share. Make sure they know that some information should not be shared with others online and if they share something they shouldn’t, they should let you or another grown-up they trust know.
2. Create anonymous usernames. On some sites, apps and games, children may be talking to other people that they don’t know offline. Let your child know that they shouldn’t share their full name or any other personal information about themselves such as the name of their school, address or telephone number.
3. Protect their usernames and passwords. Explain to your child that if other people see their username and/or password, they could use this information to access their account. Any passwords they set should be strong and safe but easy for them to remember and they shouldn’t share their password with anyone, including their friends.
4. Think before they click. Remind them that some sites, emails and pop ups may try to trick them into clicking on links or sharing information. For example, they may offer free coins, avatars or upgrades. Before they click on any links, they should stop and ask for help from a grown up first.