- 90% of children over the age of 8 already use the Internet.
- Only 40% of parents know their children have faced cyber threats.
Education is the cornerstone of our culture, as it allows us to progress as a society and share with the new generations values and knowledge that we consider essential. In an increasingly digitized society, and especially considering that children are increasingly using technology at a younger age, it is vital that education focuses on how to safely use this universal tool.
Technology offers great advantages in education, culture and entertainment, but it also presents risks that they should be aware of.
The exhibition "Why children are not safe in cyberspace” (“Why Children are Unsafe in Cyberspace”) of the Global Cybersecurity Forum found that 72% of children worldwide have experienced at least one type of online threat. This is very worrying because it can affect the mental and physical health, integrity and privacy of younger people. The report acknowledges the growing challenges facing protecting children online, particularly at a time when 90% of children over the age of 8 are already active online, but only 40% of their parents know their child has experienced online past some cyber threat.
Η Check Point Software Technologies Ltd, a global cyber security solutions provider, believes that even if efforts to deal with increased awareness and the implementation of new security measures are increasing, they are still not enough. The threats that children face are very different and, in most cases, they are not aware of them, and parents are also ignorant about these threats. Therefore, it is critical that preventive measures are taken now to ensure that children are protected online. These are some of the main measures to protect them:
- Cyber Security Education through Game: Play is always a great tool for teaching children because when they learn while having fun, they acquire concepts more effectively. In this way, practical exercises that simulate threats can be suggested so that they learn how to protect themselves. It is also possible to develop applications and online games that will help them gain this knowledge, identify threats and know how to protect their personal data.
- Ethics as commitment: teaching cyber security always comes with an ethical component because it is very important to instill ethical principles to develop future responsible citizens. The development of technological skills must be accompanied by their conscious use.
- Debunking the Hacker: it is important that children understand all the complexities of this figure. A hacker can be a cybercriminal who causes damage to computer systems, but that there are also "good hackers" or "white hats" who use their computer knowledge in an ethical manner to identify potential system breaches or errors to companies and fix them to prevent attacks.
- Cybersecurity in the educational program: one of the main strategies to prevent threats affecting minors is cyber security education at school. Cyber security is a hot topic in schools and it would be very helpful to make children aware of the risks and teach them some tools to protect themselves. To this end, it is vital to have digitally literate teachers and it is highly recommended that they offer such cyber safety talks so that parents also have some basic knowledge on how to help their child protect themselves online.
- Create a secure network: Children also need to know how to create secure networks to prevent potential threats, one of the most common being phishing. This threat consists of using emails to trick people into clicking on malicious links or attachments. Sometimes, these emails are very difficult to detect, especially for children, because they appear to come from a familiar person, such as a friend or family member. For this reason, it is essential that they learn how to detect when a cyberattack may be breaching their network, use secure passwords as an additional barrier, protect the social media they spend hours on, and recognize phishing attacks.
It is very dangerous for children at such young ages to be exposed to risks in cyberspace, because it can endanger their emotional health, physical integrity and privacy", explains Konstantina Koukou, Channel Account Manager & Evangelist, Check Point Software.
“We believe it is essential that children receive cyber security education so they know how to recognize threats and have the tools to respond. In this sense, children can feel safer online and at the same time we are building a more aware and responsible society in the use of new technologies".
