Cybersecurity for Kids: Why Digital Safety Education Should Start Early

We are well past the start of the Digital Age, yet how much and in what way we should focus on digital safety is still a topic of discussion in many places. What’s more, digital safety education for kids, when it should start, and what forms it should take continues to puzzle many parents, educators, and lawmakers. So, let’s take a look at cybersecurity for kids, why it’s such an important topic, and especially why it’s crucial that digital safety education for kids should start as early as possible.

Kids Face Many Online Safety Risks Today

“Cybersecurity” may not sound like a topic meant for kids; however, keeping kids safe is absolutely crucial. As such, finding the right way to introduce cybersecurity to kids early on isn’t just a matter of teaching them a skill for later in life, it’s also crucial for keeping them safe while they are still kids too.

For example, according to NSPCC research in the UK from last year:

• There have been around 34,000 online grooming offences in the UK in the span of seven years between 2017 and 2024.
• 6,350 child grooming crimes were recorded in 2023 alone.
• A quarter of online child grooming victims are children under the age of 12.
• 80% of children between the ages of 12 and 15 report having had harmful experiences online.

The report identified 150 different apps, online games, and other websites that had been used to target children.

On a more global scale, a report posted by the Childlight Global Child Safety Institute in 2024 examined the distressing topic of child abuse and sexual exploitation online and concluded that over 300 million children under the age of 18 around the world have been subjected or affected by online sexual exploitation or abuse in the span of the previous 12 months.

According to Paul Stanfield, CEO of the Childlight Global Child Safety Institute:

“We are in the grip of a crisis that we believe should be treated like a global pandemic. We see the change that can be made quickly, and how countries and organisations can come together when there is a worldwide health emergency.”

Then, there are also all the other kinds of online dangers that both children and adults often fall prey to:

Phishing dangers – people and malware trying to get personal data from you or your kids.

Password security dangers – risks of password leaks.

Identity theft – children can also fall prey to identity theft or they can be used for criminals to steal the identities of their parents or relatives.

Catfishing – the risk of interacting with people who aren’t who they say they are.

Online reputation risks – children are often at risk of saying or posting things that can come back to haunt them years later. They can also often accidentally tarnish the reputation of their parents or relatives.

Given all of this, digital safety for kids isn’t just a fancy new educational course to cram into kids’ school schedule, it’s arguably one of the most crucial things parents and educators can teach children today.

Cybersecurity as a Form of Media and Online Literacy

The importance of cybersecurity in and of itself is clear and evident for kids. However, an additional way to look at it is that media and online literacy as a whole is something people should be taught from an early age, and digital safety is a part of that.

Too many people today have little to no online and media literacy, which is why even adults continue to fall for misinformation online, lies, conspiracy theories, online scams, and much of the cybersecurity issues above, such as catfishing, identity theft, phishing, abuse, and more.

All of these issues differ in type and severity, but they all have a common root, as they all stem from people failing to recognize deceptions and falsehoods online, fail to spot patterns between different (and often the same) sources of misinformation or scams, and continue to fall prey to malicious people and organizations time and time again.

As such, teaching children about proper cybersecurity early on in life isn’t only going to keep them safe in the short term (which is more than enough of a reason in and of itself), but is also crucial for teaching them basic online safety and security lessons in a broader sense that many adults today still lack.

What Does Teaching Kids Cybersecurity Include?

Teaching kids about cybersecurity isn’t something that needs to get overly technical and complicated. Similar to telling a child not to talk to complete strangers on the street and not to accept “gifts” and candy from people they don’t know, teaching them basic online safety tips is just as easy.

Of course, there are also many online safety precautions parents can take themselves. From setting certain parental controls on the computers, phones, browsers, games, and other hardware or software at home to just limiting kids’ screen time. However, even the most controlling parent can’t (and arguably shouldn’t) just try and control the entire digital presence of a child, as that is basically impossible. Instead, teaching kids at least some basic online safety tips early on is crucial and much more helpful.

Such online safety tips include:

• Remind children to never share their location, full names, and other personal information with strangers online.
• Emphasize that they should never share personal details about parents or other relatives to people online, including showing photos of documents, passwords, and so on.
• Teach kids to always share when something bizarre or potentially suspicious has happened online (and make sure they are comfortable doing so with you).
• Encourage kids to be proactive with their cybersecurity by reporting inappropriate behavior or content online to the platforms on which it has happened.
• Educate kids (in a child-friendly manner, of course) about many of the online dangers we mentioned above.
• Go over the privacy settings of the platforms your kids use together with them and educate them on what each setting means and why it’s important.
• Teach children to “think before they post.” Similar to how we teach children to try and think before they speak, thinking before pressing Enter is just as important.
• Set clear guidelines on daily screen time.
• Teach children about online etiquette.
• Encourage children to focus their attention on age-appropriate content.

Of course, no amount of tips and education guarantees 100% safety, and the same applies to parental restrictions and control. There are risks out there, and we often just need to accept that in today’s day and age. However, going over basic digital education with your kids or at school is one of the best and most effective things you can do to keep them safe.