Kids Behaving Badly Online? Here's What Parents Can Do

Kids Online

By taking clip to understand and pass nan effect of undesirable online behavior, you tin thatch your kids an invaluable group of life lessons for a caller integer age

05 Mar 2025  •  , 5 min. read

There has ever been a taste spread betwixt parents and their children. But arguably this disagreement has grown complete nan past decade aliases much arsenic integer natives are calved pinch nary conception of a life without continuous connectivity.

For “digital immigrants,” who person been forced to accommodate to this caller integer era, it tin beryllium challenging knowing nan world from their children’s constituent of view. And it tin beryllium moreover much difficult to empathize pinch kids that utilization their online freedoms to behave inappropriately.

Yet while nan disconnect is real, it doesn’t person to beryllium insurmountable. By taking clip to understand and pass nan effect of undesirable online behavior, you tin thatch your kids an invaluable group of life lessons for a caller integer age.

What does behaving severely mean online?

Let’s look it, kids tin beryllium impulsive. But they’re besides wired to beryllium this way. Researchers believe that nan frontal and prefrontal cortexes of nan encephalon – which play a awesome domiciled successful controlling behaviour – aren’t afloat developed successful adolescents. The result? More impulsivity and consequence taking.

Yet consequence taking successful itself is not a bad thing. It whitethorn beryllium terrifying for nan parent, but is an basal portion of increasing up – allowing children to build assurance and resilience, and understand nan value of bully judgement. The problem is erstwhile impulsivity spills complete into recklessness which could endanger their intelligence and beingness health, and perchance their finances, arsenic good arsenic nan lives of others.

With your activity logins, adversaries could hijack your email aliases different accounts to entree delicate firm information and networks for theft and extortion. And if you reuse those logins crossed aggregate accounts, they whitethorn moreover beryllium capable to tally credential stuffing campaigns to unlock those accounts, too.

What kinds of things are we talking about?

Oversharing individual data

Social media sites, online gaming and chat rooms and different platforms are awash pinch kids’ individual information. And bullies, predators and personality thieves are primed and fresh to usage it against them. Identity theft is peculiarly common. Almost a million US children fell unfortunate successful 2022, costing their families complete $1bn. Children’s individual accusation is successful peculiarly precocious request arsenic nan personification attached to it doesn’t person a bad in installments rating, truthful it tin beryllium utilized successful synthetic fraud without tripping immoderate alarms. Kids are besides little apt to cognize if their accusation is being abused successful this measurement to unfastened caller slope aliases in installments paper accounts, for example.

Talking to strangers

Oversharing individual accusation mightiness besides induce nan attraction of online predators, who are often recovered impersonating kids online to get person to their targets. On uncommon occasions this tin spill complete to maltreatment successful nan beingness world, though often nan extremity end is immoderate benignant of sextortion. This happens erstwhile a predator persuades a kid to nonstop definitive videos aliases images of themselves. Once these are successful their possession, they will request more, aliases imaginable money—threatening to merchandise said images if their demands aren’t met. The FBI warns that from October 2021 to March 2023, it received complete 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors, pinch astatine slightest 20 suicides recorded.

Lying astir their age

A 3rd of children aged 8-17 pinch a societal media floor plan person a mendacious age, according to investigation from UK regulator Ofcom. They often do this to fresh successful pinch their friends and assuage their FOMO. The situation is that it could consequence successful your children being exposed to harmful contented and age-inappropriate advertising. As Ofcom warns, if a kid aged 8 sets up an relationship arsenic a 13-year-old, past by nan clip they’re 13, they will beryllium capable to entree big content.

Sexting

This is erstwhile teen impulsivity tin get youngsters into existent trouble. Research claims that astir 1-in-10 Americans aged 13-17 person had definitive images of themselves shared without their consent. This could person unintended ineligible consequences, arsenic sharing specified images whitethorn beryllium illegal. It tin besides unfastened nan doorway to sextortion and cyberbullying, pinch each nan affectional distress this entails.

Cyberbullying

Bullying has ever been commonplace among children – for galore reasons. The net has simply opened up much opportunities from a larger scope of peers for this to happen. Research reveals that half of US teens person acquisition cyberbullying. This tin origin affectional and beingness harm and nonaccomplishment of self-esteem. The advent of AI-powered deepfake nudes will only compound these challenges.

Hacking aliases scamming others

Sometimes kids whitethorn use their method know-how for malign purposes, without having a clear knowing of nan consequences of their actions. A study respective years agone from nan UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) revealed that children arsenic young arsenic 9 had been caught launching DDoS attacks. There’s a agelong database of teens recovered guilty of sometimes superior cyber-attacks including information extortion and ransomware. Sometimes nan intent is not moreover to make money, but simply to brag to others successful online groups, though nan authorities mightiness not spot it that way. A criminal grounds could blight a young person’s life for galore years to come.

What parents tin do

For overmuch of nan above, nan proposal is nan same. As a genitor you request to:

• Set clear crushed rules
• Lead by illustration pinch your ain integer habits (i.e., debar oversharing and engaging successful risky online behavior)
• Use parental controls wherever basal to show usage and artifact entree to inappropriate content
• Talk candidly astir nan dangers of inappropriate behaviour (sexting, oversharing, cyberbullying, etc.), and nan value of online information and respecting others

You could besides see nan following:

• Set up your child’s online accounts and take age-appropriate ones (to mitigate nan consequence of them lying astir their age)
• Enrol your children successful an personality protection service, which monitors nan acheronian web for signs of their individual info (to mitigate nan effect of oversharing)
• Ensuring your children’s privateness settings limit who tin position their relationship (to trim vulnerability to bullies, predators and fraudsters)
• Share specifications of ways your kid could workout their hacking skills successful a affirmative way, via government aliases privately tally courses (if you’re concerned they whitethorn beryllium hacking others)
• Download anti-malware from a reputable vendor to their devices
• Ensure they only download apps from charismatic stores

Above all, support nan lines of connection unfastened wherever possible. It’s important that your kids understand nan quality betwixt bully and bad behaviour online, but besides that you’ll ever beryllium location to listen. Ultimately, this isn’t conscionable astir protecting your kids. It’s astir raising nan adjacent procreation of net users to beryllium thoughtful, risk-averse and respectful.