School season is already starting. With the ‘new normal’ in place, there would be no physical classes, only online classes. That being said, there is a need for children to create their own accounts in whatever platform the school and teacher uses to facilitate learning.
There is all the more reason to teach online privacy and online safety to our kids.
Under the Data Privacy Act, the collection of personal data must have been consented to by the data subject, unless falling within the allowable exception. But in case of minors, they cannot validly give consent on their own, and it is the duty of their parents or guardian to do so in their behalf.
So, there is a responsibility being given to parents, in sharing the data of their children. Parents should be responsible over the accounts of their children. Here are some ways you can protect your children’s privacy online.
1
Teach your children how to use their gadget and the internet.
Teach them, while they’re young, to keep their password a secret, and only you and your child should know it, as well as the reason why it has to be so. Teach them to never reveal personal information to strangers. Also, if your children have their own social media account, teach them to never overshare important information for the world to see. Teach them to click only links that their teacher or school has sent them.
2
Have rules and child-protect in place, if any.
This is especially important if you have young children. Set up rules, like on how long they can use the computer. Also, always have kid’s version of the application you use, since these are more kid friendly, and establish a barrier from all the various illicit things on the internet, that a kid has no business of knowing. There are kid-friendly search engine like: Kiddle, powered by Google. There’s also a Youtube Kids. There are various applications and software online that are specifically catered for young children. Utilize these while your kid is still starting to use the internet, since they have not yet developed a sense of care in handling online and interactions.
3
Keep the communication open between you and your children.
This is so that your kids can be comfortable discussing and telling you what is happening in the online realm. They might be being bullied, or someone is chatting them and harassing them or asking sensitive information, and so on and so forth. Make sure to tell your children to always tell you about these kinds of situation.
4
Check if the applications and platforms you use respects you and your child’s privacy.
Some applications exists ONLY to acquire data from us, and sell them to other companies. Make sure that the service you are receiving are commensurate to the data they are getting from you and your children, and that you are aware that you data is being passed around. Most reputable corporation have data privacy systems in place, where you can fully exercises your rights as a data subject. Remember that as a data subject, you have the right to be informed, about where your data will be used, what it is for. You also have the right to object to the collection of your information. You have the right to access your data. You have the right to erasure, to delete all your files, if it is no longer necessary. You have the right to rectification, if there is something on their files that is no longer correct, then you can change it.
The very nature of the internet makes it hard for data not to passed around, what we can do about is is being conscientious of what is it we are giving away and taking active control over our data that’s already there. Not many are aware of this reality, but we should keep these things in minds. Especially when it is about our children’s information and data.
Having an internet presence at such an early age requires a close monitoring from the parents of the young individual. So, make sure that you’re educating your kids properly on not only online etiquette, but on how they can protect themselves and their privacy online. Protecting the kids are not only the school and the teacher’s duty, but more so, the parents.
Here are some more resources on how to keep your kids safe online:
ADM PRIVACY WEBSITE 