Change your password every 6 months (McAfee says so!)

Hi there! Today I wanted to talk about a little trip I took to Sydney to chat with McAfee and Life Eduction about teaching cyber-safety in our schools. The reason why I said yes to this (and the reason why I am sharing this with you) is because:

1. I love the internet and I understand the good and bad stuff that comes with it.

2. I teach social media, design blogs and am about to teach an online blogging course.

3. I have kids, who are sponges.

4. I wanted to know what to teach my kids.

5. I was keen to learn some new safety tricks myself.

You must watch this video before you read on – it’s THE cutest thing I have ever seen!!!

How cute was that? So, does the Life Eduction van come to your school? If so, do you know whether your school has elected to do the bcyberwise module? My job next month is to go to my P & F meeting to make sure my school signs up. Why? Because I can’t teach my kids like Life Education can. They have a knack, and showed me part of the program they teach. It makes sense, was easy to understand and the kids will love it. And even though I am 35 years old, I learnt quite a few new things….

• Do you change your password every 6 months? No? Me either! So what do you think I did as soon as I got home?
• Passwords are like toothbrushes – don’t hand them around. Haha, I loved this so straight away I sat with my kids and chatted to them.
• Really? Almost 50% of teens open social media accounts without parents knowing….

So here are the proper facts. Some absolutely astound me!

• 66.5% of teens said their parents or guardians don’t know everything they do online
• Almost 40% of teens would change their online behaviour if they knew a parent or guardian was watching
• A staggering 68% said they’d posted some kind of personal content online such as email addresses, phone numbers, school information and home addresses
• Over 40% of teens said they know how to hide what they do online from parents and guardians
• 36%minimise the browser when parents walk in the room
• 30% clear their browser history to avoid detection

{That’s me on the right with Healthy Harold}

Just before I leave you, I stole this from Alex Merton-McCann‘s website and I thought I was hip and cool until I realised I didn’t know what half of these internet slang words stood for…

LOL – Laugh Out Loud (not lots of love)

POTS – Parents Over Shoulder

CD9 – Code 9 which means parents are about

KPC – Keeping Parents Clueless

PAW – Parents Are Watching

POP – Parents On Prowl

ROFL – Rolling On The Floor Laughing

1,2,3,4,5 – Typing the numerals 1 to 5 means parent is reading the screen

NMU – Not Much, You?

BRB – Be Right Back

IDK – I Don’t Know

ASL – Age, Sex, Location

Did you know some of them?

Hopefully, today I gave you a little nudge to make some time to sit with your kids and talk about internet safety. Maybe you could go to the Life Education website and find out some more information, OR go to your school and ask them to teach it to your kids. 🙂