ONLINE PRIVACY FOR KIDS & PARENTS

Knowing what information is safe to share, and what is not, is one of the great challenges of the digital age. While sharing some personal information is a necessary part of living life online, sharing too much information can damage your reputation or impact your online security. This is important for both kids and adults to understand. Check out one of our videos from our Digital On-Ramps curriculum for 4th and 5th graders that addresses this topic!

Online Privacy Is For Everyone:

Even adults could use a refresher: research from the Pew Research Center has repeatedly found that many people share more personal information online than they realize, and struggle to keep track of who can see it.

Online Privacy Tips

Read the Privacy Policies of all the sites you visit.
Review hard-to-read and confusing Privacy Policies with ToS;DR (Terms of Service; Didn't Read), a free browser extension and website that grades privacy policies and terms of service from A (great) to E (terrible) in plain English.
Set the privacy settings on all of your social networking sites.
Turn on tracking protection in your browser (like Firefox's Enhanced Tracking Protection or Safari's Intelligent Tracking Prevention) and enable Global Privacy Control, the modern successor to the old "Do Not Track" setting, which browsers have phased out because most sites ignored it.
Never share passwords (except with your parents).
Make strong passwords. For example, mix upper and lowercase letters with symbols and numbers, or better yet, use a password manager to generate and store them.
Keep personal information personal.
Don't chat with or send photos to strangers.
(For Kids) Ask your parent's permission before signing up for anything online.
Know how to recognize ads and don't click on them.

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Updated July 2026

Privacy for Parents:

Kids' Devices & Accounts

Setting up privacy correctly at the start saves you headaches later. Here's what to focus on when it comes to your child's devices, apps, and accounts. For a deeper dive into general online safety settings, see our Online Security Hub.

Know your rights under COPPA. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires companies to get your permission before collecting personal information from kids under 13. As of April 2026, updated federal rules strengthened these protections: companies must now get your separate consent before sharing your child's data with advertisers or using it to train AI systems, they can no longer hold onto your child's data indefinitely, and biometric information (like fingerprints, voiceprints, and face scans) is now explicitly protected. If an app collecting your child's data doesn't clearly explain how long it keeps that data or who it's shared with, that's a red flag.

Set up devices before handing them over, not after. Enable parental controls (Screen Time on iOS, Family Link on Android) before your child's first login, not weeks later. It's much easier to start restrictive and loosen up than to walk back access your child has already gotten used to.

Use family/kid accounts where available. Platforms like Google, Apple, and YouTube offer supervised or family-linked accounts built for children, with tighter default privacy and content settings than standard adult accounts.

Check app permissions together. Before your child installs a new app or game, look at what it's asking for. A drawing app doesn't need your child's location; a game doesn't need microphone access. Make it a habit to ask "why does this need that?" together.

Be cautious with AI chatbots and companion apps. AI tools marketed to kids and teens can collect conversation data, and some have raised real concerns about the advice or content they give young users. See our AI Chatbots & Companions hub for a closer look at these tools, and talk with your child about what they should never share with a chatbot: full name, address, school, photos, or personal problems.

Review social media age minimums, and don't assume they're enforced. Most platforms officially require users to be 13+, but verification is often weak. If your child is on a platform below the intended age, treat it as an opportunity for a privacy conversation, not just a rule to enforce.

Model the behavior you want to see. Kids notice when parents overshare photos or location. Talking to them about privacy is more effective when it matches what they see you doing.

Cyber Civics is a digital literacy curriculum that helps students understand and protect their online privacy — from reading privacy policies and managing their digital footprint, to recognizing how apps, social media, and AI tools collect and use personal data. It teaches critical thinking and practical strategies so young people can make informed choices about what they share and who can see it.