With the years I learned some rules of behavior on internet, but I wonder if there is some kind of extensive guide for parents who are not experienced with technology.
For example, I don’t think content blockers are a good idea for teenagers. It works for kids, but teenagers will find workarounds because parents were lazy about teaching them the dangers and instead used a spyware app.
Here is a bad written list of some obvious rules:
- Be anonymous
- Use private social media accounts
- Do not tell any personal information
- Use ad blockers
- Learn to recognize ads
- Learn to recognize AI generated text and images
- Learn to recognize scam
- Understand consent
- Learn to prevent blackmail
- Learn to prevent grooming
- Learn how fake pornography is and the unrespectful content
But I wish there was some kind of step by step guide
- Learn to recognize pishing mail and sms
- Do not share nude pics of yourself (even not to your boy/girlfriend)
- Do not upload pics of your face to funny AI apps
- Learn to recognize and ignore social media trolls
- Learn netiquette writing style in social media
- Do not write bad things about colleagues and boss in emails at work
- Recognize dark shopping patterns such as time counter, discounts, voucher height
- Recognize fake shops
- Recognize no returns (Chinese) shops
- Recognize gambling patterns in games such as loot boxes, rewards and more for real money
- Understand the money loss through subscription schemes
- Do not buy now and pay later
Sorry for this long list. It’s just a terrible place for kids
- Do not upload pictures of your face ANYWHERE, period - including private chats
- Do not use any name even resembling your real one, or rederencing your known interests
- If something asks for a phone number, avoid using it
- If it is mandatory (like for government services) or very hard not to use (like Whatsapp or Telegram), ask the parent first, maybe there is an aliasing solution
- If the data sharing is mandatory, try digging deeper for alternative options because it may turn out to be not so mandatory
- Do not post anything political or even remotely questionable in the current climate (should be talked about with the parent), and must understand you can be arrested for pretty much anything and be made an example of
- Each time an application is installed, think about what data it is able to access, pay attention to permissions
- Prefer FOSS programs for everything possible
- Learn to treat a Windows PC or a non-degoogled phone as a fundentally unprivate device and learn to not trust them with personal things (if I were a parent, I’d install a privacy-preserving OS on a device prior to giving it to a kid anyway)
Not even like video calls. People can take screenshots. That’s happened to me in the past. (I was an adult when it occured but my point still stands)
Thank you !
Now I should add
- Learn to recognize malwares
- Learn to block disturbing people and to ignore haters
Can you explain what you meant by netiquette and do noy pay later?
There’s a lot of “services” like Klarna where you buy now for payments split over several months. At first glance these often seem ok but they’re essentially loans with credit card interest rates.
If the BNPL offer comes with 0% interest and you pay with debit, or a credit card that you always pay off timely, I don’t see how it can be such a bad thing. Spending your money immediately, especially with the inflation accounted for, a fix $50 over twelve or twenty-four months means you actually came out ahead theoretically, since your money went further.
The only catch here is of course that vendors will price their goods accordingly, where BNPL or loans will be the only way to afford their goods.
I issue with subscriptions and pay later schemes is, that you loose sight of what you have paid, will pay next weeks/ months and what amount of money you still have left.
Taking inflation into account for anything that is below 100k and over more than 5 years, is just ridiculous, to say it in plain words, sry.
In short you live day to day with your money without any planning if you let your cash flow out by itself (subscriptions, loans)
Thanks
Someone mentioned dark patterns below.
This link might be helpful -> https://www.deceptive.design/types
netiquette
Net etiquette, be friendly, don’t ask stupid questions, etc…
I disagree with the “don’t ask stupid questions” any question you ask might be viewed as stupid by someone who knows the answer. Better to say “don’t ask questions you know are stupid”.
Or ones the answer to which is the very first result in a web search.
Do not share nude pics of yourself (even not to your boy/girlfriend)
With automatic cloud backup, even taking a nude photo with a connected device is a risk. And once you upload it to the Internet, it’s out of your control. You can put your trust in a company but we’ve seen them fail to protect your data so many times.
Great list, I would just suggest to recognize all dark patterns. It’s not like only shopping sites use them.
Always remember that corporations will if able exploit your child as much as possible. Help your kids learn that any corporation type platform will filter things and change based on what they want your kids to see.
True, they should learn about suggested content bubble
I think you’re missing of the most important parts:
- learn to avoid addictive content
This means:
- games w/ MTX
- clickbait/doom scrolling
- gambling
Others got into that as well, but I honestly try to keep things simple, so I’ll leave it as assuming that everyone on the internet is trying to screw you. For example:
- someone you don’t know in person is being extra nice? They probably want something from you.
- a deal looks too good to be true? It probably is.
- something says you need to take urgent action? Probably a scam.
The internet is not a regulated place, so be vigilant about figuring out how the other party is trying to screw you and you should catch most of the crap out there. Yeah, not everyone is trying to screw you, but you should always assume they are.
My biggest rule is not on your list:
- Only add friends that you have met in person.
Also, be sure to apply Richard Stallman’s privacy rules. To summarise, all data that leaves your device is effectively out of your control. Assume all of this data is captured and stored, and will be used against you at some point.
I’ve met some good friends online that I later met up with in person. Though this was only after chatting and gaming with them for years. Meeting in a public place reduces a lot of the risk. I wouldn’t want to give out my address or meet at someone’s house.
Yeah. I’ve got friends that I’ve met through LAN groups. There’s even heaps of people who hang around in the same discord channels as my friends. Every now and then, we’ll find ourselves at the same BBQ and I’ll happily add them after that.
I think this is close to what you’re looking for: https://www.missingkids.org/netsmartz/home
Click the “Peer Learning” pdf on the home page.
This one https://www.missingkids.org/content/dam/netsmartz/itc/downloadable/Peer Education Kit.pdf ?
Looks good, could be used in classrooms (I doubt they will here though since education is so much out of touch with reality)
This is a really good start TY
I’ve reached the conclusion that the only way to protect children from these influences is to remove the influences altogether.
My children will be raised with minimal dependence on the internet, and minimal dependence on consumerism.
Glad I’m not the only parent out there thinking these things.
One way would be to let them find out the hard way. Make sure they understand that everyone can see what they do and say and that they can find them back as a first base step. Let them have to click the right download button when downloading a mod for their game, you know. Make a setup so that if there’s theres a big oopsie with their devices yours arent affected. And from there they will install an ad blocker or learn to find the download button. You could also make a fake blackmail or phishing email to see how they react (I’ve thought about making a fake phishing email for the elder ones in my family recently too…) and make it so that if they click, the screen goes black and red with crazy sounds.
My daughter isn’t even two yet, but I’m definitely trying to plan a balance with this. It’s a huge part of how I learned, and I don’t think I would have learned nearly as much or as well otherwise.
At the same time though, I can’t help but feel like ads and the internet are far more insidious than they were when I first went online in 2000.
Malware is much more sneaky. There’s more spare resources for it to use without impacting performance. Ads have likewise had plenty of time to develop/advance/get worse.
Thankfully, ad blocking, anti-malware, and recovery tools have also advanced.
I think for the early days I’ll have her on an isolated, locked down, pre-protected device for learning the basics of using a computer (mouse, files, the type of stuff they used to teach in elementary school).
Then slowly take off the training wheels.
That’s how I learned too, but at first yeah obv training wheels are useful in order to not have to reinstall the os every 2 days. About malware though, it may be more sneaky in general but some sites I’ve seen recently still use the old ways, especially for game mods or file downloads, they still use the giant green download button trick. Also, she will grow up in the internet that we have today, so if she learns the old stuff, it may not be that useful
In any case, just for thinking of this, she will probably be one of the most tech savvy person in her generation! I hope she will be thankful
I don’t think there’s a guide on how to protect your kid in an inner city alleyway either.
Why would you let your kid on the internet?
Tbh I wish there were. I did watch some youtube videos because I want to move to a bigger city and I did not learn the tricks to avoid danger is such a city
Is there an extensive guide on how to protect kids on the internet?
Countless.
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It must be a nice life that wishing for something to be true makes it so, regardless of reality
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According to project 2025 this issue is covered: Just block tyranny porn and get them a gun. They’ll be fine.
Block tyranny porn? Doesn’t that also filter Project 2025?
Step 1: unplug the router.
Unrealistic
Step 1) Don’t let kids on the internet.
There is no step 2. The internet is not a place for kids. It’s barely a place for teens, but hopefully you’ve taught teenagers how to behave online by the time they’re 15.
Step 1) Don’t let kids outside
There is no step 2. The outside world is not a place for kids. It’s barely a place for teens, but hopefully you’ve taught teenagers how to behave outside by the time they’re 15.
On point lmao
Most of my knowledge including the field I study now, is due to having internet as a kid and its power to learn by yourself
You don’t teach without experience
