My kids love Roblox, and while it’s a fantastic platform that allows them to express their creativity and explore thousands of user-generated games, it’s also a platform that requires parents to take online safety seriously. Games like Roblox and Minecraft might look harmless, but they can expose children to real risks if they’re not prepared. And it’s not just these game consoles that we need to focus on; VR platforms, social media, and websites all have interactive features that can lead to unsafe situations.
The problem is, most kids don’t respond well to lectures about strangers online. It’s easy for them to tune out warnings, especially when they think nothing bad can happen—something I’ve seen with my six-year-old.
Talking to your kids about internet safety is essential, but it doesn’t have to feel like a formal sit-down talk. That’s why I put together a practical guide for parents looking to make these lessons stick. It’s full of flexible strategies you can tailor to your child’s age and interests, so they can learn how to stay safe online without losing interest halfway through. While every child is different, these are proven strategies that have worked in my household, and I hope they’ll work in yours as well.
Why Is Internet Safety a Big Deal?
It seems like a silly question, but when we are safe within the walls of our homes, we tend to forget about the dangers that exist in the outside world. Those dangers may be right down the street or on the other side of the world, but when they are on your kids’ gaming devices, they are in your living room. The internet can be a scary place, but it doesn’t have to be when you equip your children with the necessary tools for internet safety.
Strategy 1: Talk
Most kids won’t want to sit on the couch and listen to a lecture about internet safety. Especially when it is the same boring content they’ve already heard from teachers and parents before. That doesn’t mean talking about internet safety doesn’t help; you just have to make it more exciting for them.
Social Stories
Social stories are an excellent way to communicate with children, particularly those who are younger or have different learning styles. A social story is defined as a concise narrative that clearly and simply describes a social situation and the expected behavior in that situation. Parents can write their own social stories, reach out to professionals, or have their children write social stories that show how they would react in specific internet safety situations.
Role Play
Role-playing is similar to a social story, but with more acting and less reading. Putting kids into these real-life situations and asking what they would do may be the perfect way to teach them real-time responses to these problems. Parents can create situations themselves, but there are numerous online resources, such as these digital safety cards, that can be used.
Standard Lecture
Giving the standard internet safety talk may not be a fun or unique way to discuss staying safe online, but it may be the answer for some kids. Children who are literal in their thinking may not enjoy games and activities as a means of learning. There is nothing wrong with sitting your child down and giving them a ‘birds and the bees’ style talk about the dangers of the internet and how to protect themselves. If you want to add a little fun, you could have them conduct research on internet safety and present a lecture to you. Of course, this is age-dependent, and you will likely have to fill in some blanks.
Strategy 2: Play
Children, especially young ones, learn through play, so it makes sense to teach them how they learn. Here are a few fun and unique ways kids can learn about internet safety through play.
Art
Art is a powerful tool that people utilize for various reasons, including therapeutic purposes and educational learning. Having kids draw an internet safety situation and then discussing their drawing is one option. Another way kids can use art to talk about internet safety is by creating a digital footprint collage. This list of free digital footprint artwork projects for parents and teachers is a great starting point.
Scavenger Hunt
One engaging way parents can get their kids involved in internet safety is through a scavenger hunt. There are plenty of sites online where you can find digital scavenger hunts, but there is something to be said about learning away from screens sometimes. This is one example of a way parents can create a physical scavenger hunt where kids can search for clues around the room, then solve them.
Trivia
My oldest is exactly like me, so she loves trivia games like Jeopardy. Creating a Jeopardy-style trivia game about internet safety is a fun and engaging way to learn about this important topic. The best part about this idea is that it allows you to thoroughly develop your safety talks, as you have multiple categories to work with. For example, you can have obvious topics like “Personal Information” and “Internet Etiquette.” Still, you could also cover more niche issues, such as how to determine if a website is safe or not.
Board Game
Playing a board game about internet safety is a fun way to learn about it, but it also creates a lot of time with your child that you can use to talk about other ideas or spend more time on parts of internet safety they haven’t quite grasped. You can’t exactly buy an internet safety board game at your local mass merchandiser, so you’ll have to create one. While it may take a lot of work, it allows you to customize the game for your child’s age and experience level. Another option is to create an escape room (a board game variation that is growing in popularity) where kids have to escape a room by solving clues about internet safety.
Activities
One more option is fun activities for kids. This method is especially great for introducing ideas to younger kids. Nets Smartz Kids offers a range of free activities and eBooks to help kids learn about internet safety in a fun and engaging way.
Strategy 3: Game
Gamification has become huge in learning because it’s a spoonful of sugar with the medicine. Kids still learn the ideas, but in a way that doesn’t feel like work. These websites offer safe and fun online games that teach about general internet safety.
- Zoe and Molly Online
Zoe and Molly is a Canadian website that teaches kids online safety in three ways. There are games and comic books to learn, and a quiz to show what you’ve learned.
- Google Interland
Interland is a game developed by Google with four distinct levels. Each level focuses on one part of internet safety, with level one tackling online scams, the second teaching not sharing personal information, the third is about how to keep information safe, and the last, and most important one for the gaming community, teaches kids about being kind online and not interacting with those who aren’t being kind.
- FBI Safe Online Surfing
SOS by the FBI is a fun video game with similar elements to the mobile games they love. Kids control a character and roam around a map gathering coins and answering questions about safe online activity. They use age-appropriate questions by allowing you to choose which grade your child is in. It covers a range of online safety topics, including keeping your information safe, recognizing predators, and being cyber-friendly.
- CEOP Education
This one is a little tricky because the landing page is more of an all-ages informational page, but if you scroll down, you’ll find games suitable for a few different age ranges. The games are easy side-scrollers where you must dodge objects while answering questions about staying safe online. While CEOP addresses a range of online safety tactics, it primarily focuses on the social aspects of gaming and social media.
Strategy 4: Protect
We can’t be looking over our kids’ shoulders every moment of every day, but there are still ways we can protect them even when they aren’t in the room.
- Limit Screen Time
As a dad with three kids at three very different stages of online access, I understand entirely that limiting screen time is easier said than done. However, one of the best ways to keep your kids safe online is to limit how much time they spend there. These rules change over time, but knowing how much time your kids spend online is a first line of defense.
- Anti-Virus and Firewalls
Having good firewalls and antivirus software on every device in your home is essential for internet safety. Nobody is perfect, and even kids who have learned internet safety can make mistakes. It’s essential to protect every device just in case kids fall for a scam, because if someone gains access to one device in your house, they can gain access to all of them.
- Parental Controls and Privacy Settings
When the devices in question are things like gaming consoles, parental controls can go a long way toward keeping your kids safe. Some parental controls even give you weekly reports on your kids’ activities, so you can catch any behavior that needs to be corrected. At an account level, parents can help ensure their children’s safety by setting strict privacy settings and controlling passwords.
- If You See Something, Say Something
The most critical thing we can do as parents is let our kids know that we are a safe space for them to discuss any problem. Teach them from a young age that if they come across something online that they know is wrong or makes them feel uneasy, they should immediately report it to a trusted adult. Vigilant kids who are comfortable sharing all information with their parents, even the uncomfortable stuff, will sniff out scams and predators from miles away.
