12 internet safety tips for kids: A parent’s guide

The extent to which children use the internet is a hot topic. Naysayers claim a generation of “iPad kids” is being harmed by excessive exposure to technology, while some supporters suggest that, since digital devices play a crucial role in the adult world, they have an important place in childhood, too.

A 2025 study by Common Sense Media, a non-profit family advisory organization, found that children aged eight and younger average around two and a half hours of screen time a day. And almost 50% of children in the same age range have their own tablet device.

These children, like anyone else equipped with independent internet access, can find themselves confronted with any of the many threats the internet poses — from scammers on social media to chat room predators.

But there are ways to help keep them safer, including prioritizing risk awareness, leveraging parental control software, and investing in the right protections.

1. Use parental control software

Parental control software lets you set screen time limits, block unsafe websites, and restrict unwanted apps from your child’s phone or tablet. It allows you to set “ground rules” that are unavoidable and don’t need to be enforced manually through constant oversight.

Parental control software can be platform-specific, like Microsoft Family, which only allows you to manage Windows devices, or platform-agnostic, like Norton Family, which offers cross-platform parental control tools. These are some of the main options to consider:

• Microsoft Family: With Microsoft Family, you can manage your child’s Windows computer usage by setting screen time limits, blocking websites on Edge, and requiring approval for Microsoft Store purchases.
• Google Family Link: Allowing control of linked Android devices, Google Family Link offers options like screen time limits, privacy settings, and content filters that help you restrict what websites your children can visit.
• Amazon Parent Dashboard: Amazon Fire tablets can be managed through the Amazon Parent Dashboard, with options including remote activity alerts, tools to restrict app usage, and content access management.
• Norton Family: Norton Family offers a centralized way to monitor Windows, Android, and Apple devices. It includes tools that allow parents to supervise their children’s web and app usage, restrict certain types of content, and even set screen time limits.

Parental control software can be a valuable tool for helping children stay safer online, offering features such as content filtering, screen time management, activity monitoring, and app controls. However, it's important to remember that no software solution is foolproof.

The most effective approach combines parental controls with device-level security settings, clear household guidelines, and ongoing conversations about online safety.

2. Create screen time or internet usage limits

Screen time is at the center of the conversation around responsible digital parenting, and it’s just as relevant in the field of kids’ internet safety. Without other restrictions in place, the more screen time a child has, the more likely it is that they’ll run into online dangers.

You can usually set screen time limits, including app-specific rules, using parental control software. But, even without a parental control app, you can achieve similar results with built-in device-level settings on most major operating systems or digital platforms, including:

• Android: Go to Settings > Digital Wellbeing > Parental controls. From there, you can enable parental controls on the device, set a total daily screen time limit, and add screen time limits for specific apps.
• iOS: Go to Settings > Screen Time > App & Website Activity. Enable the feature if it’s not already turned on, tap App Limits > Add Limit, then select app categories or individual apps to create screen time rules for.
• Windows: Go to the Microsoft Family Safety website, sign in to a Family Safety organizer account, click the tile representing your child’s account, choose what platform you want to set limits for, and then create a schedule.
• YouTube Kids: You can create limits specific to YouTube usage from within the YouTube Kids app by tapping the settings icon in the corner of the home screen, followed by Set timer.

When deciding what screen time or internet usage limits to set, factor in both your understanding of your kids’ unique situation and scientific research into the correlation with negative outcomes.

One 2024 study of kids aged five and above, for example, found that children with over two hours of exposure per day on average showed significant increases in screen addiction, distraction, and sedentary behaviors.

3. Use online educational resources

Countless organizations offer free educational resources that help teach children how to stay safe online. From internet safety games and videos to comic books and classroom activities, these resources can make internet safety more engaging and easier to understand. Parents can explore them alongside younger children or encourage older kids to work through them independently.

These are some of the highlights, each offering engaging online safety resources that can capture your kids’ attention and make learning fun:

• Be Internet Awesome (Ages 6 to 14): Google’s internet safety curriculum is used by teachers in classrooms across the world and built into popular games like Roblox, but the resources are also available for anyone to download for free. They teach children how to spot scams, be careful about sharing information, and be kinder online.
• Net Smartz Kids (Ages 5 to 17): Centered around a cartoon series called “Into the Cloud” and associated games, Net Smartz Kids is an interactive educational program from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). It teaches children how to defend against online exploitation, cyberbullying, and the risks of livestreaming.
• Zoe and Molly Online (Ages 8 to 10): This collection of resources compiled by the Canadian Center for Child Protection includes free comic books, games, and quizzes available in both English and French. It focuses on teaching safe gaming practices and how to identify unsafe situations.
• Child Exploitation and Online Protection Education (Ages 4 to 18): CEOP, an initiative driven by the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA), offers free international access to age-appropriate interactive games and articles designed to suit kids aged 4-7, 8-10, and 11-18. That includes resources about how to spot and defend against grooming, sexual abuse, and other forms of exploitation.

Making use of these resources with your kids can dramatically improve their ability to notice online threats and empower them to speak up when they feel uncomfortable.

Parental control tools can only do so much — your children will still encounter dangers on the internet. Knowing that they understand how to deal with risks when they run into them is the key to trusting them to use tech responsibly.

4. Monitor and control online contacts

Kids or teenagers with access to online multiplayer games, chat rooms, or social media platforms might encounter dangerous people online, from social media hackers looking for their next victim to predators posing as children to build fake relationships.

Most social media platforms and games offer basic parental controls that you can use to limit risk, including:

• Snapchat: Snapchat’s built-in child monitoring tool, Family Center, allows parents to see who their child is chatting with, restrict sensitive content, and report concerning accounts, like potential Snapchat scammers.
• Roblox: Parental controls on Roblox The wide range of parental controls on Roblox includes the ability to restrict the maturity level of games available on a child’s account and customize online chat functionality by disabling voice or text chat.
• Instagram: Instagram’s parental dashboard, Family Center, allows parents to enforce online safety for teens by monitoring who they follow (and who follows them), blocking scam accounts, and changing messaging settings.

Some social media platforms, such as Messenger, offer completely separate apps for kids under 13, which offer more controls. Other platforms, such as X, Kik, and WhatsApp, don’t feature parental controls at all, leaving it up to parents to develop their own strategies to monitor or control usage.

Teenagers may be stubborn and resist parental oversight, claiming they already know how to stay safe online. To help them understand the risks, show them a few examples of common dangers, like Instagram scams that can even trick adults into providing information or sending money to strangers.

Emphasize that you’re protecting them, not controlling them, and encourage them to be open and communicative with you if they encounter suspicious behavior, rather than being embarrassed and closed off.

5. Guard personal information

One of the most important online safety lessons for children is understanding the importance of data privacy and the risks of oversharing sensitive data. Cybercriminals often use phishing scams, fake contests, and fraudulent messages to trick young users into sharing personally identifiable information (PII), such as their full name, home address, phone number, or other sensitive details that can be used for fraud or identity theft.

Teach your children to protect both their own information and their family's. A good rule of thumb is that if a piece of information wouldn't be appropriate to post publicly in the real world, it probably shouldn't be shared online either. Encouraging kids to think critically before posting can help them develop stronger privacy habits from an early age.

Children should also be cautious about accepting friend requests, following unfamiliar accounts, or engaging with people they don't know personally. Keeping their online circles limited to trusted friends and family members can reduce the risk of scams, impersonation attempts, and unwanted access to personal information.

6. Set up a kid-friendly search engine

Kid-friendly search engines automatically filter out inappropriate content, reducing the odds that young children run into potentially harmful images, videos, or websites as they browse the internet.

Here are some kid-friendly search engines and tools to consider:

• Kiddle: Based on Google’s Safe Search parameters, Kiddle filters out sites and keywords that may reveal mature content, with top results for popular search queries sometimes hand-picked by Kiddle’s staff.
• KidzSearch: Relying on Google’s strict search filters, KidzSearch uses an AI filtering algorithm that tracks cloaking methods that kids may use to try and find inappropriate content, like replacing letters with numbers.
• Swiggle (UK): A UK-based kids search engine, Swiggle directs children to educational websites and checks search terms for inappropriate content.

Popular mainstream search engines like Bing and Google, while not explicitly designed for use by children, also provide safe search tools that you can use to block mature content on your kids’ devices. Plus, these search engines can be monitored through Microsoft’s and Google’s respective parental control apps, allowing you to track what your children search for.

Here’s how to enable SafeSearch on Bing and Google:

• Bing: Go to bing.com, click the three-line menu in the top right-hand corner of the window, click SafeSearch, and tweak the settings to suit your needs.
• Google: Go to google.com, click the profile icon in the top right-hand corner of the window, click SafeSearch, and tweak the settings to suit your needs.

Setting your child’s search engine up with content filters adds an extra layer of online safety, but even with safer search tools, parental oversight is still necessary to keep your kids protected.

7. Explain the risks of cyberbullying

Cyberbullying or online harassment is experienced by more than half of middle- and high-school students, according to a study from the Cyberbullying Research Center. It’s not a rare occurrence, and it can have a real impact on children’s mental health.

The signs of online cyberbullying are similar to those you might expect to see from a child being bullied on the playground or in class, including:

• Decreased self-esteem.
• Loss of interest in activities.
• Avoiding social situations.
• Dropping grades.
• Faking illnesses to avoid school.
• Secretive behavior.
• Poor sleep.

Explaining the seriousness of cyberbullying to your children and teaching them how to block or report bullies they encounter online can help them keep themselves safe. But look out for the signs yourself, too.

And remember that online cyberbullying can also extend to the real world, so pay attention to any unexplained injuries that could indicate physical harassment. If your child is a victim of bullying, text CONNECT to 741741 to reach a trained volunteer Crisis Counselor through the Crisis Text Line.

8. Secure online accounts

Scammers or hackers will use all sorts of tricks to get access to online accounts, from impersonating tech support agents to pretending to be from a law enforcement agency.

Teaching your kids the basic rules around how to keep their online accounts — and the data stored within them — more secure can help prevent cybercriminals from taking them over, stealing sensitive information, or even impersonating your child to target their friends in subsequent phishing attacks.

These are four of the most important elements in account security and how to explain them to your children:

• Never share passwords: Explain how it’s never a good idea to share account passwords with strangers, or even friends. For elementary school students just getting introduced to online safety, consider keeping passwords from them entirely to prevent accidental oversharing.
• Create a unique password: For older kids who set their own passwords, remind them to use strong, unique passwords for each account. This helps protect their accounts against password spraying attacks, where criminals use a single stolen password to get access to multiple accounts.
• Enable MFA: Multi-factor authentication means anyone trying to log in to an account requires a verification code sent to a specific phone number, email address, or authentication app. Enable this feature for all of your children’s accounts to help prevent unauthorized access.
• Consider a password manager: A password manager makes it easy to store all of your secure passwords for multiple accounts (or even multiple users) in one easy-to-access place.

9. Provide online scam education

Scammers exploit kids’ trust, curiosity, and lack of experience to trick them into providing sensitive information, sending money, or clicking links that automatically download data-stealing malware.

Aside from practicing good cybersecurity by following the other tips in this list, the next best way to protect your kids from online scams is to educate them.

Run through these common scam types with your children, focusing on the red flags that indicate they might be speaking with a scammer:

• Fake giveaways or prizes: Deals that seem too good to be true, such as free Robux (Roblox currency) if you provide your account details.
• Catfishing: Random social media messages from strangers who can’t verify who they are, which may be part of an online dating scam.
• Fake shopping sites: Links in emails or direct messages that lead to malicious fake websites, often identified through strange URLs with misspellings or numbers instead of letters.
• Quizzes that harvest data: Fake online quizzes, commonly linked to Facebook scams, use fun distractions to steal your kid’s information.
• Phishing or smishing: Unfamiliar phone numbers or text messages asking for unusual information may be part of smishing or phishing attacks.

10. Discuss the risks of public Wi-Fi

Public Wi-Fi, like the networks often available at libraries, schools, or local cafes, is generally less secure than home networks. These public networks may be unprotected, meaning hackers could be lurking on them, waiting for victims to target with malware injections or data interception.

Explaining these risks to your children can help them avoid potentially risky networks while out in public. But you can also educate them on methods they can use to make public Wi-Fi access more secure, if they ever need to use it:

• Avoid sensitive activities: Tell your kids to avoid sensitive activities, like using cash apps, to avoid losing their login credentials in banking scams.
• Use a VPN: Have your kids use a virtual private network service that encrypts their internet traffic and provides an extra layer of security on unsecured, public networks.
• Block network settings changes: Block phone- and tablet-based changes to connection settings with parental controls to prevent public network connections.

11. Install antivirus software

Even informed, security-conscious kids can make cybersecurity mistakes, whether it’s accidentally clicking a malicious link or downloading an infected file. Preparing for this risk by installing antivirus software on their devices provides real-time protection that can detect and remove malware before it causes serious harm.

Not sure how to choose the right antivirus software? Use these criteria to guide your search:

• Third-party lab testing: Review third-party testing results on sites like AV-Test & AV-Comparatives to see which antivirus programs are most effective at detecting threats.
• Customer reviews: Check out customer review platforms like Trustpilot to get an idea of overall antivirus ratings and what features customers praise or criticize.
• Good features: Look for software that offers real-time protection, AI scam detection, coverage for multiple devices, and, ideally, a VPN.

12. Consider identity theft protection

Identity theft protection services can help protect your kids and your entire family by minimizing online exposure of sensitive information, monitoring for signs of fraud, and providing reimbursement coverage for financial losses following scams or identity theft.

Popular options tend to offer access to a variety of tools, typically including dark web monitoring, credit monitoring, financial account activity alerts, and reimbursement packages. They offer benefits like:

• Early detection of fraud: Credit monitoring and identity theft protection features can notify you of suspicious changes to credit reports, warn you if someone attempts to open accounts in your name, and alert you to unauthorized financial activity.
• Dealing with identity theft: Actively monitoring for signs of fraud or identity theft makes it possible to respond to suspicious activity as soon as it’s detected. Identity theft protection services offer expert support that can help manage recovery and reduce the risk of further harm.

Some services, like Norton 360 with LifeLock, combine antivirus and cybersecurity features with identity theft and scam protection. This provides a more comprehensive protection package that can help keep your kids safer from threats like hackers and fraudsters.

Risks that kids face when using the internet

Kids face many of the same risks as adults when using the internet, including scams, exposure to inappropriate content, pressure to participate in viral trends, and screen addiction. Knowing more about these risks can help you prepare your children to face them.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the main risks kids can encounter online:

• Exposure to inappropriate materials: Unmonitored internet usage could lead to kids viewing mature videos, pictures, or webpages. A 2022 Pew study shows that nearly half of parents are concerned that their teens’ social media use could lead to viewing explicit content.
• Participation in dangerous viral challenges: Social pressures amplified by social media sites can pose a direct risk to kids’ safety. For instance, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) once warned about the risk of taking higher than recommended doses of Benadryl in response to an ongoing trend called the “Benadryl Challenge” in which teenagers took dangerous amounts of the drug to create TikTok videos.
• Exploitation by online predators: Online predators may use multiplayer games, social media, and online chat rooms to target children. For example, Roblox, one of the most popular multiplayer children’s games, was sued in 2025 when a father allegedly found a predator posing as a 16-year-old targeting his 13-year-old son, offering Roblox gift cards in exchange for inappropriate photos.
• Cyberbullying and online harassment: Cyberbullying can have a serious impact on children, potentially affecting their mental health, sleep quality, and school performance. And it isn’t just about mean words — two boys were charged after allegedly creating deepfake AI photos of a Louisiana middle school student.
• Stalking: Children can become cyberstalking targets by sharing their location data on social media websites or in chat rooms. Details like your home address can even appear on public data broker sites if your child signs up to certain online services, but you can request their removal through opt-out forms on their sites.
• Online scams: Scammers may target children online by tricking them into believing they're a trusted adult or someone from a legitimate organization or company. They will use all sorts of social engineering tactics to encourage children to share sensitive information or send money.
• Radicalization: Some children are targeted by online groomers (manipulators who push children into unsafe activities) who guide them to extreme ideologies with dangerous outcomes. In 2025, a 14-year-old boy sought community online after dealing with a difficult transition, finding forum networks that allegedly pushed him to self-harm and thoughts of suicide.

If you or your child is facing mental health struggles, emotional distress, or just needs someone to talk to, call 988 for free assistance from the suicide & crisis lifeline.

Defend your kids from identity theft and fraud

Growing up online comes with opportunities — and risks. From social media to gaming platforms, children are increasingly exposed to scams, data theft, and other online threats that can have lasting consequences.

LifeLock helps you stay one step ahead with identity theft monitoring, financial account alerts, and support if your family's information is ever compromised. And if identity theft does occur, reimbursement coverage and dedicated restoration assistance can help you recover faster and with greater peace of mind.

FAQs

What should I do if my child already shared personal information online?

The key steps to take if your child shared personal information online depend on what data they revealed. If it included sensitive personal or financial details that could be used in fraud, contact the three credit bureaus to set up a fraud alert, get in touch with any relevant financial institutions to protect at-risk accounts, and consider a child credit freeze.

When is it good to let kids start using the internet?

While this is a highly personal decision, letting your kids start using the internet early, like when they're in elementary school, can help equip them with skills they’ll need in their lives. However, throughout childhood, provide appropriate online safety guidance and monitor your child’s online activity to ensure they’re using the internet safely and responsibly.

Can kids fall for phishing scams?

Yes. According to a 2023 Deloitte study, members of Gen Z (including children aged 12 to 18) are more than three times more likely than Baby Boomers to fall for online phishing scams. Being raised with the internet doesn’t necessarily make children less likely to miss scam red flags, which is why education is so important.