WyzGuys Tech Talk

“The more accounts you create, the more likely your data is going to be exposed online,’ explains Melody Haase of 4Discovery, a digital forensics firm that helps clients recover from data breaches and other privacy-related events.

Haase explains that younger people are often early adopters of technology, meaning they are some of the earliest users of new platforms and software. “They will create accounts on multiple platforms, and often those accounts are never fully set up with privacy settings, or they are never deactivated or deleted,” she says. This is a problem because every unsecured or forgotten account presents another opportunity for a data breach.

Discarded accounts can also make it hard to maintain a good online presence down the road. Haase gives a real-world example: “I had a friend in college who forgot the password to his old Twitter account. This account was full of embarrassing content, and he no longer had access to the Comcast email connected to the account. This meant he could not reset the password and delete the account.” Not a situation you want to find yourself in! (According to Twitter, you’re probably out of luck if you can’t access your old email account, unless you protected your Twitter account with phone number verification.)

Parents: Teach your kids not to create unnecessary new accounts, or to ask you for permission before creating them. Delete accounts that are old or unused.

“Stranger danger” still applies online, says Chelsea Brown, a certified cyber-security consultant and founder of the blog Digital Mom Talk.

“Today’s kids aren’t really taught about digital strangers and have trouble recognizing a friend from an enemy online. They also check-in, post pictures and share details of their school, classes, friends, etc. While these items seem harmless, they contribute in a larger part to child identity theft, cyber-bullying and child grooming online,” she explains.

Brown points out that parents share this responsibility. “Parents also overshare information about their children that doesn’t just compromise their identity, but it leaves their children vulnerable to other risks like cyber-bullying, grooming, and defamation of character to name a few. Many of my client’s children tell me that their parents don’t even care or are even aware of how what they share affects their children.”

Parents: Set rules for who your children communicate with online. Don’t allow kids to friend or message people that they don’t know in real life. Take a close look at the apps they’re using and the permissions they require. Apps that don’t have privacy controls or that unnecessarily share your location should be considered off-limits. Also, kids learn by example, so show them that privacy is important by respecting these boundaries yourself.

Raffi Bilek, Director at the Baltimore Family Center, is a family therapist practiced in helping people of all ages recover from online trauma. He told Safety.com that even though digital natives are more at home in cyberspace than previous generations, kids are still kids, and teenagers are still teenagers. They need help learning the consequences of their behavior.

“One of the biggest mistakes young people tend to make about their online lives is the mindset that ‘this is private.’ They will send a message or photo to a friend on the assumption that it won’t be shared, only to find out later that it’s gotten out – whether due to negligence on the part of their friend, or, unfortunately, a betrayal.”

He continues, “Worst of all is when an individual sends explicit photos to their significant other without fully considering that in all likelihood there will come a day when they won’t be together. Young folks have a much harder time considering the consequences of their actions, especially regarding the distant future (which, in their perspective, can run in months instead of years or decades). Inevitably some of those breakups go poorly, and one party is left with powerful weapons in their hands to use against their ex.”

While this scenario is comfortably far off for young kids, it does happen to adolescents and teens. And the lesson of privacy still applies to any other intimate exchange that happens online.

Parents: Counsel kids that nothing online is truly private, including one-on-one conversations. Even in “disappearing” environments like Snapchat or Facebook stories, where user content is only available for a limited time, it’s still possible for the viewer to save or record the information. Advise kids not to do anything online that they wouldn’t do in person.

Priya Rajendran is Director of Product Innovation and User Experience at Ford Motors – and she’s also the CEO of parenting app SmoresUp that brings tasks like chore assignments, family networking and reminders into the 21st century.

One of the issues she points out often goes under parents’ radar: When kids are online, they receive an onslaught of marketing messages and sales pitches. Even if you have an ad blocker or parental controls, marketing messages still get through.That’s because social media makes it easy for ads or influencer posts to look like bona fide reviews.

“Your kids will be constantly and unknowingly exposed to advertisements, especially from personalities they admire. Explain the concept of promotional posts, and show them how to tell if something is trying to influence you to buy something,” advises Rajendran.

Parents: Learn about the habits of online influencers to help your kids grow a healthy relationship with social media. Help your kids think critically about the messages they receive, and that hashtags like #ad, #spon and #sponsored are one of the first signs to look for.

“Young people usually have a better awareness of social engineering and phishing but there is also the potential for overconfidence to blind them to new forms of cyberthreats,” observes Ray Walsh, internet privacy expert at ProPrivacy.com.

“Cybercriminals constantly look for new ways to target individuals using social engineering tricks that have never been attempted before and these novel techniques may cause even tech-savvy individuals to be caught out,” says Walsh.

The takeaway? Just because digital natives don’t fall for classic Nigerian prince-style scams, criminals know what they’re doing and they change their tactics all the time.

Parents: Remember the old adage, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Tell kids not to automatically trust every message, offer or sale online. Don’t give them the ability to send money online until they can differentiate between legitimate exchanges and scammers. Also, teach them not to share personal info like birth dates, full names, street addresses and social security numbers.

Written by your home security expert Emily Ferron.  Emily is an experienced writer passionate about covering topics at the intersection of tech, health, safety and humanity.