Tips for Online Family Safety from CyberAware

1. Keep Your Family Safe
Online
Michael Kaiser
Executive Director
Twitter: @MKaiserNCSA

2. Core Initiatives

3. The Family
• For families being connected is a given
• Keeping children and families’ assets safe is a
priority
• Raising young people who can use the
Internet safely securely, ethically and
productively benefits everyone
• There aren’t many bright-line rules; children
age differently and we are teaching them to
use technology as a lifelong endeavor

4. The NCSA/
ESET Study
• Conducted for National Cyber Security
Awareness Month (NCSAM) (#CyberAware)
• Survey of 500 families with children under 18

5. Have The Talk(s)
• 75% of families surveyed have had
conversations with children in the home about
using the Internet safely and securely
• Communication is the key to safety and
security
• Make discussions about online safety and
security part of your everyday life:
– How was school today? What happened on the
playground? What are you up to online?

6. Parents’ Top Concerns
• Cyber bullying or harassment is the top
concern for parents (41%), followed by:
– Viewing pornography (38%)
– Contact by strangers (38%)
– Viewing objectionable or age-inappropriate
content (37%)
• Other significant risks for children:
– Identity theft
– Reputational harm

7. Are we
overconfident
as parents?
• American parents seem to be very confident
that their children are protected from online
dangers
– Almost 60% are confident that they know
everything their children are doing online
– 61% are confident that their kids can use the
Internet and devices safely and securely
• Is this how we we really feel?

8. Rules, or
Lack Thereof
• 59% of parents don’t require their kids get
permission before downloading new apps, or
games or joining social networks
• Only 40% don’t allow password sharing with
friends
• Only 34% require that children provide all
passwords to online accounts
• Only 23% have device-free dinnertime rules
• Only 25% have rules about allowing devices in
the bedroom after a certain time

9. Rules, or Lack
Thereof Continued
• 70% of parents don’t limit the kind of personal
information allowed for posting on social
networks
• Only 31% do not allow download pirated
content from the Internet such as illegal
games, movies or songs
• 60% don’t limit screen time use per day
• 63% don’t limit hours during the day during
which devices can be used
• 10% have no rules at all

10. Consequences
• When cyber rules are broken, parents report
digital timeouts as a common consequence
– Take away devices for a period of time (63%)
– Put stricter time limits on the use of devices (12%)
– Limit device use to specific things (e.g., doing
homework or other productive work) (14%)
– Don't have consequences related to tech usage for
violating tech rules (6%)
– Have tried making rules and enforcing them but
find it is not an effective strategy (2%)

11. Your Home
as an Enterprise
• 67% of the households surveyed each have
between 1 and 5 devices at home connected
to the Internet, while 30% have 6 or more
devices and 5% have 11 or more devices.
• 30% of those surveyed have 2-3 more
Interned connected devices at home today
than they did last year

12. Doing a Lot
From Home
• Banking and finances:
– Banking (66%)
– Taxes (30%)
• Entertainment:
– Music streaming (39%)
– Social networks (74%)
– Gaming (43%)
– Streaming TV/movies (45%)
• Fitness and health: 16%

13. Doing a Lot From
Home Continued
• Shopping and e-commerce:
– Travel (31%)
– Shopping (61%)
– Selling merchandise (20%
• Storing personal information:
– Videos/photos (38%)
– Music (36%)
– Streaming TV/movies (45%)
• Work and homework:
– Homework (21%)
– Work (28%)

14. Router as the
Keys to the Kingdom
• 2 in 5 households – more than 40% – did not
change the factory set default passwords on
their wireless routers
• Close to 60% did not (48%) or are not sure
(8%) if they changed their router usernames
or passwords in the last year
• 60% set up their wireless routers on their own

15. Risks are Real
• 1 in 5 American households has received
notification that their information has been
lost in a data breach
• Of those affected, 56% have received multiple
notifications of being data breach victims
• 1 in 5 households has received notification
from children’s schools that their children’s
information has been lost in a data breach

16. Who’s your family CSO?
• Every family needs a family online safety
officer
– Could be you. Could be a child.
– Establishing this role makes sure that someone in
the family is keeping up and thinking about
security issues and checking in that family
members are doing things safely and securely
online.

17. Assign Digital Chores
• Responsibilities include:
– Device management (patches, passwords)
– Inventory of all devices connected to the Internet
– Backup of data
– Data cleanups
– Review of social media feeds
– Account security (creating long, strong and unique
passwords and updating them regularly,
implementing multifactor authentication)

18. For Everyone
• Keep a clean machine
• Get two steps ahead
• When in doubt, throw it out
• Share with care
• Post only about others as you would have
them post about you
• Personal information is money: value it and
protect it

19. For Parents
• Help your kids own their online presence.
– When available, set their privacy and security settings
on websites to your comfort level for information
sharing. Remind them that it’s OK to limit how and
with whom they share information.
• Support their good choices.
– Expand your children’s online experience and their
autonomy when developmentally appropriate, as they
demonstrate competence in safe and secure online
behavior and good decision making.

20. For Parents
Continued
• Explain the implications.
– Help your children understand the public nature
of the Internet and its risks as well as benefits.
– Be sure they know that any digital info they share,
such as emails, photos or videos, can easily be
copied and pasted elsewhere, and is almost
impossible to take back.
– Things that could damage their reputation,
friendships or future prospects should not be
shared electronically.
.

21. For Parents Continued
• Just saying “no” rarely works.
– Teach your children how to interact safely with people they
"meet" online. Though it's preferable they make no in-person
contact with online-only acquaintances, young people may
not always follow this rule. So talk about maximizing safe
conditions: meeting only in well-lit public places, always
taking at least one friend and telling a trusted adult about
any plans they make – including the time, place and
acquaintance’s contact information (at least a name and cell
phone number).
• Empower kids to handle problems, such as
bullying, unwanted contact or hurtful comments.
– Work with them on strategies for when problems arise, such
as talking to a trusted adult, not retaliating, blocking the
person or filing a complaint. Agree on steps to take if a
strategy fails.
.