Our privacy is an issue that needs to be talked about, and it's best to do it as young as possible - it's not just that Instagram was fined 400 million euros last week for exposing children's information.
As you may remember, Google was also fined for a similar issue - following YouTube's privacy violations against children, it had to reconsider its customized ads policy after being fined 170 million dollars.
A report published in 2018 by the Children's Commission showed that more data is being collected about younger generations than ever before, and that this data may have future implications. The reasons why talking about online privacy has become a challenge for many parents are many, and we have collected them for you.
1. Not understanding what our kids are doing online:
When it comes to social media, chances are the kids can teach us a thing or two.
On top of that, many children are active on digital platforms that parents don't know exist, so they may be left out of the discussion due to lack of awareness or just plain embarrassment.
Parents of young children assume that there is still plenty of time before they need to "talk" about privacy, and this is their first mistake.
Studies show that by the age of 12, more than half of children have multiple active social media accounts and that the average age of receiving a smartphone is 10.3.
Even before that, the kids hang out with friends who started their digital journey at a much younger age.
We all need to start this discussion much sooner.
2. Forgetting to talk about the privacy of information:
if once we were mainly afraid of strangers with sweets in the kindergartens, today the sites with the cookies are also added to this.
Usually, when we think of the dangers inherent in the Internet we associate it for obvious reasons with people with malicious intentions.
As parents, we must not neglect the protection of children's privacy from essential and frequent dangers such as the collection of information by certain websites.
3. Don't set an example:
many parents are far from living up to what they aim to teach their children, something that is very noticeable when it comes to privacy.
Most of us don't check the apps and websites that follow us online.
The first step for parents looking to raise awareness levels at home is to learn how our online data is collected and used.
Start checking what data is collected about you and how, where it is stored and for how long, and how third parties might be exposed to your information?
Parents have an important role in this matter.
Children use a computer (illustration),
4. Violate children's privacy ourselves:
By the age of 5, the average child has 1,500 photos online, shared by their parents.
Our children's privacy rights also apply to us parents, and sometimes we are the ones who violate their rights by uploading photos or publishing personal information.
Although our memory fades, search browsers don't forget, and your children's footprint will remain there forever.
Carefully choose the content you share so as not to end up hurting the people most important to you.
5. Lack of awareness of the importance of the digital footprint:
Children share their most sensitive points online, mainly because they are unable to set boundaries when asked to provide information.
Sometimes, parents don't realize that this digital footprint creates their child's online presence, which will be an inseparable part of them throughout their life.
This imprint affects the content we watch and also the information others will be exposed to.
Every parent should explain to their child that he can do whatever he wants (within good taste, of course), but first of all, they should define their privacy settings together.
6. Raising children's awareness of personalized ads:
Generally, children are more vulnerable to marketing techniques because at a young age they are not able to differentiate between advertising and reality and take the content of ads with limited liability.
Therefore, many legislators have found it important to formulate strict rules on advertising to children, long before approaching the problems related to data collection.
We can solve this through government legislation in Israel, but until then it is important to explain to our children the meaning of advertisements and their effect on us.
7. It's hard to follow:
everything changes from moment to moment - the children's interests and knowledge, the platforms and devices they choose, the privacy policy, and more.
It's not easy to protect our loved ones from something we don't fully understand ourselves, but when the safety of our children is at stake, we will do whatever it takes.
The idea is not to scare children away from the screen, but to give them better tools.
We have to explain to them which details are forbidden to give out (for example passwords and your residential address), when to contact an adult and how to control the privacy settings on each of the platforms they use.
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