Keep Kids Safe Online: Practical Steps to Prevent Harm

You may think your accounts are secure behind strong passwords, but criminals increasingly target the weakest link in a household’s digital defenses: children. Fraudsters befriend kids online, gather small details—like a pet’s name or a favourite hobby—and then feed those clues into automated tools to generate permutations that can help them guess passwords or answer account-recovery questions for other family members.

“A child can become an unwitting channel for criminals to collect personal information,” says Julie Kuzmic, senior compliance officer, consumer advocacy at Equifax Canada. Attackers exploit a child’s trust and natural willingness to respond to friendly questions, turning innocent conversation into ammunition for identity theft.

A range of harms

Children’s access to the internet brings many benefits, but it also exposes them to a variety of risks across all ages—from infants and toddlers to older teens. These risks include:

• Developmental impacts. Excessive screen time and passive online exposure can interfere with cognitive growth, reducing opportunities for unstructured play and real-world social interaction that are important for brain development.
• Harmful content. Age-inappropriate material, misinformation, altered images, and other damaging content can impair a child’s learning, judgment, and emotional development.
• Online predators and exploitation. Strangers can groom or manipulate young people via social networks, games, and messaging platforms, creating serious safety concerns for parents.
• Privacy breaches and identity fraud. Personal details shared by children—whether willingly or through lax privacy settings—can be harvested by bad actors and used to defraud family members or to open fraudulent accounts in a child’s name.
• Mental and emotional effects. Heavy social media use correlates with anxiety, depression, body-image issues, sleep disruption, reduced physical activity, and challenges in social development.

Don’t assume kids know what they’re doing

Even tech-literate children lack the life experience to recognize when someone is lying about their identity online, Kuzmic warns. They may also underestimate how permanent digital posts can be—content shared today can remain discoverable for years, potentially affecting future opportunities.

Early adolescence is a particularly sensitive period: children push boundaries, seek independence, and may experiment with higher-risk online behaviour just when they get their first phones, social media profiles, or bank accounts. That combination can increase vulnerability to scams and exploitation.

“Talk to your kids about online safety in age-appropriate ways and make it an ongoing conversation,” Kuzmic advises. Protection should be layered and evolve as children grow; one discussion is not enough.

Measures to protect kids from online harms

Protecting children online requires active involvement from parents and caregivers. Think of early internet access as needing “training wheels”: stay involved while children learn to navigate digital spaces safely. Practical steps include:

• Create clear rules. Set boundaries for internet use and decide at what ages specific platforms or apps are allowed. Some families formalize these expectations in a visible household agreement.
• Enforce physical limits. Simple measures—like no devices after bedtime or keeping family devices in shared spaces—help limit overnight or unsupervised use.
• Use digital controls. Employ parental controls, content filters, and secure networks (including reputable VPNs) to reduce exposure to risky sites and apps.
• Teach online safety. Explain why strangers, random links, suspicious quizzes, or banner ads can be dangerous. Encourage kids to ask before clicking or sharing.
• Discourage oversharing. Reinforce the idea that personal details—full name, address, birthdate, family information, or pet names—should not be broadcast publicly.

Criminals target children because of natural tendencies like the desire to be accepted or to make friends. Parents need to stay involved, remind kids about red flags, and help them recognize situations that may seem harmless but are potentially risky.

Digital security from Equifax Complete Protection

As children grow and gain independence, parents can’t supervise every interaction. Supplementary tools can add a layer of protection. Equifax Complete Protection is a subscription service that bundles credit-monitoring and cybersecurity features, including parental controls powered by Bitdefender to help limit which websites and apps children can access.

Key features of Equifax Complete Protection include:

• Daily credit monitoring and alerts for important changes to your Equifax credit report, such as new credit inquiries or accounts.
• WebScan monitoring that searches parts of the dark web where stolen personal data may circulate.
• Social media monitoring through a specialist provider to flag suspicious activity on social accounts.
• Online data encryption and password management tools to help protect family devices and credentials.
• Device security to defend against phishing, malware, and other threats.

Equifax Complete Protection is listed at $34.95 per month. Consider combining practical parenting measures with technical protections to reduce the chances of fraud, privacy breaches, and other online harms affecting your family.