The UK's Information Commissioners office have launched a campaign they call 'Switched on to privacy campaign' aimed at helping parents of kids aged four to 11 start simple conversations about protecting their personal information online.
Backed by stakeholders, the campaign urges parents to treat online privacy as an essential life skill - as natural as teaching a child to cross the road.
The project follows a period of research and reflection which concluded that
- 24% have shared their real name or address online, with eight and nine-year-olds most at risk.
- 22% have shared personal information such as health details with AI tools
- 35% of parents believe their child would share personal information in exchange for game tokens or rewards.
Getting children to keep their identity secure, not share passwords or devices with friends and to use passwords that are difficult to guess (pets names etc) can be difficult. They trust those that they regard as friends almost without question and childhood friendships can often be short lived.
Read the full report here.
