Teaching Your Students about Online Threats: Educator’s Guide to Cybersecurity
By Med Kharbach, PhD | Last Update: June 6, 2023
According to a study, 38% of teens can’t imagine life without their smartphone. Almost half are always reachable online. Children and teenagers are also the most vulnerable and unprepared when it comes to online security.
As a teacher and authority figure, you’re in an excellent position to educate students on online threats and healthy internet security habits. This guide touches on the most prevalent threats students face today. It then offers tips on making cybersecurity themes more interesting to students. Finally, it provides essential security tips you should impart to students of all ages.
What Threats Should Students Be Aware Of?
The internet is rife with dangers that target students’ identities, emotional well-being, and even physical safety. Younger students are especially at risk since they’re more impulsive and trusting. Here are the most dangerous threats you need to make them aware of.
Phishing & Malware
Phishing is a technique cyber crooks use to gain and exploit someone’s trust. They’ll send emails or instant messages pretending they’re someone the student knows or claiming they have connections with their school, favorite video game, etc.
These messages contain links that take students to shady sites, often created to look like real ones. The sites may prompt them to enter personal information or download harmful programs.
The latter install onto their devices and perform unwanted actions like stealing data or making the system unstable. We call this malware. Ransomware is a nasty subset of malware that locks users out of their files if they don’t pay up. Such attacks increasingly affect schools as well.
Cyberbullying & Harassment
Anonymity makes it easier for kids to hurt their peers online. Cyberbullying takes on different forms, from sending hurtful messages to someone to humiliating them by publishing sensitive info or media about them. It can have lasting psychological consequences and be harder to escape than conventional bullying.
Online predators
Predators are individuals who try to sexually abuse minors through online means. They’ll often pretend to be their victim’s age to establish trust. Once they’ve gained it, they may ask the victim to provide explicit content or meet in person. Teens are especially impressionable. They may engage with such individuals willingly in a misguided search for affection.
Inappropriate content
While generally less dangerous than the above, exposure to inappropriate content is the hardest to avoid. Such content can range from swear words and harmful ideologies through topics not meant for children to deceitful marketing practices.
How to Convey These Threats in a Kid-Friendly Way?
Students’ online security is a serious matter. It’s also one they may find boring or can’t grasp fully if they’re younger. As an educator, it’s your responsibility to bring the subject closer in an engaging way.
When talking about the basics of cybersecurity, do so in an age-appropriate way. Kids will respond to practical examples the best. Fun activities that highlight concerns and best practices will be more effective than theory alone.
Remember to use the internet itself to your advantage. Some helpful resources contain educational materials, games, and activities for teachers and students alike.
Cybersecurity Essentials for Students
It’s important to emphasize how your students aren’t powerless. You should accompany any discussions on online threats with practical steps on how to minimize them.
Many threats emerge as a result of oversharing. Pay particular attention to discussing students’ privacy and social media presence. Teach them to stop and think about whether posting something online could reveal unwanted info about them or their loved ones.
Students shouldn’t become friends with and engage with just anyone. They need to know it’s OK to stop communicating with and block anyone who either harasses them or starts getting too personal. Stress how they can reach out to you or their parents if they’re feeling uncomfortable or threatened by online interactions.
Younger generations are more tech-savvy than ever, so don’t assume discussing some basic cybersecurity tools is above them. For example, teens will have no trouble grasping how it’s safer to use password managers than storing weak or the same passwords on their computers and phones. Have them install antimalware on all their devices and keep it updated.
It’s important to make students aware of various shady practices. Teach them how to recognize attempts at phishing and manipulation along with the dangers of online predation. It’s also good to touch on exploitative video games and harmful systems that can cause addiction and gambling problems.
Conclusion
An online presence is becoming the core part of ever more students’ identities. They have easier access to unregulated internet content than past generations. They also likely lack the tools and understanding needed to spend their time online safely and productively. You can do much to provide them with these resources.
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