5 Ways to Protect Your Children from Online Scammers and Predators

In the last decade, we already saw the trend of younger and younger children being given smartphones for various reasons, including safety. In the post-pandemic ‘new normal’, it has become a necessity for many children to go online for learning and e-learning has seen a boom. This has resulted in more kids being online now than ever before.

While there are countless benefits of internet use by children, it also opens them up to dangers such as online scammers and predators. According to a study, the number of individuals aged 20 years or younger who reported being victims of cyber fraud increased by 156% between 2017 to 2020.

Common Online Scams Targeting Children

Children and teens are soft targets for scammers, who prey on them with various different scams. Some of the common scams targeting children are:

• Phishing: Scammers often go after accounts on social media and games by tricking kids into clicking malicious links for stealing their data.
  
  
• Catfishing & Sextortion: Romance scams are often targeted at young teens as they are more likely to trust strangers making advances towards them. Some scammers may even persuade them to appear nude on camera and then use the images/videos for blackmail.
  
  
• Giveaway Scams: Scammers run ads on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube promoting fake giveaways using images and names of celebrities without permission. The ads lead to fake websites that are designed to steal personal information.

• Shopping Scams: Fly-by-night online stores advertising on social media target teens with fake deals and block them or disappear without delivering any product after receiving the payment.
  
  
• Influencer Scams: Also known as the ‘Brand Ambassador Scam’, this scam targets social media accounts of teens by asking them to promote certain products. However, the products have to be purchased with their own money at a (falsely) discounted price.
  
  
• Malware: Youngsters who try to download movies or songs illegally might end up infecting their devices with malware. This can lead to unwanted ads popping up on the device and even files being locked or stolen.  

Cyber Safety Tips for Children

There are simple but important steps you can and should take to ensure the safety of your children in the virtual world. 

• Educate your child about online scams: Social media and messaging apps such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are extremely popular among teens. They are also where scammers lurk. Every parent tells their child to be wary of strangers and the same lesson should apply online, in fact, even more so because the internet provides complete anonymity. 
  
  Talk to your child about not sharing personal and private information with anyone online.They should also be taught to not click on suspicious links.
  
  
• Teach them to be mindful about their digital footprint: It is important to teach your children to use social media with discretion as anything posted publicly could contain personal information. A scammer or predator can easily find out their name, who their friends are, where they live, which school they attend, where they hang out and much more by gleaning their public profiles. Anything they post online also stays online forever (until the site shuts down). 
  
  
• Monitor their activity: It is important to give your children some level of privacy when it comes to online activity; it may be a bit much to go through their private conversations. However, it is wise to periodically check their browsing history and app usage to know if they are indulging in risky online activity. 
  
  
• Do not give them payment access: Make sure that your child’s device does not have any payment information, such as credit card data, stored on it. Malicious apps and games can trick youngsters into making multiple large payments in the form of in-app purchases. You can activate parental controls on their devices to prevent this from happening but it is not foolproof. It is safest to not save payment data in the device at all. 
  
  
• Install security software on their devices: Every step you take to protect your child online is a precaution and does not guarantee that they won’t be targeted. An easy way to add an additional layer of protection is by installing security software or browser extensions on all their devices to automatically stop them from accessing dodgy sites. Our partner Trend Micro’s digital parenting tool Trend Micro Family is well-regarded in this aspect. 

Scammers are always innovating and their tactics may change, but the scams don’t. By having a discussion with your child about online safety and taking steps for their protection, you can prevent them from falling into the numerous traps set by scammers.