Safer Internet for young people

Have you ever felt unsafe when surfing the internet? Digital technologies now dominate l our daily activities, regardless of age or job.

Terms such as smart city, smart home, smart device, digital literacy, cyberspace, metaverse, cryptocurrency, cybersecurity have crept into our everyday vocabulary, even if we’re not always aware of their correct technological meanings, or how their full impact on our daily lives.

Certainly, digital technologies, and particularly the internet, have brought about a digital environment. which demands new skills and abilities, while also posing unfamiliar risks, especially for young people.

At times, the world around us is quite overwhelming, and ensuring internet safety for young people is critical for a comfortable online experience. Achieving this is not just about individual actions, but also the shared behaviours and habits we adopt collectively while online.

Elian’s British School of La Nucía por el Safer Internet Day

Every February for the last 20 years, International Safer Internet Day has been celebrated. The European Commission created it to raise awareness of the internet’s potential dangers and to promote safe browsing.

This year International Safer Internet Day is on 6th February with the theme “Together for a better Internet”.

At Elian’s British School of La Nucía we want all of our students to be aware of the internet’s potential risks and how to deal with them. For this reason, we’re holding a conference on Artificial Intelligence and its proper use. .

From 30 January to 7 February we are organising activities on the importance of Internet safety for young people. The students will play an active role through presentations and by using AI tools in a controlled environment.

We are confident that together we can achieve greater Internet safety for our young people. Furthermore, we firmly believe that during these sessions, students will learn vital skills on using the internet safely and effectively, which will in turn enable them to use technology prudently as adults.

Data security on the internet

It’s alarming to learn from “El diario vasco” that Spain experiences 40,000 cyber-attacks daily.This number has risen during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in sectors like insurance, telecommunications, and banking. Considering the frequent digital activities we all engage in, with millions of our account and internet transaction data stored, the risk is significant.

The article itself points out that cybersecurity ⟪(…) has long since ceased to be an option and has become an obligation, and we must all, both individually and professionally, take precautions (…).)⟫; to then add that cybersecurity ⟪(…) is something that can affect us in all spheres: from the personal, with the theft of our accounts, but also of our money or our reputation (…)⟫, to which we can add “of our identity”.

Many other sources of information and studies from prestigious institutions associated with digital technologies issue similar reports and statements on a regular basis only to reinforce the stark reality: we need to be safer when using the internet. .

How we can start to protect ourselves and increase Internet safety for children and adolescents.

To protect ourselves and to make the internet safer for young people, we don’t need complex computer science skills, nor do we need to be cybersecurity specialists. We can start by transforming our daily habits when it comes to using digital technology.

Here are some actions that you can and should incorporate into your day-to-day dealings with technology and especially the internet:

1. Encrypt stored data: we are not in the habit of storing our data on the devices we use on a daily basis and protecting them from attacks or capture. We are not aware that a device connected to the internet without any security exposes our data (photos, videos, writings, etc.) to capture without even physically stealing the device. There are applications for the different operating systems we use today that can do this task for us in a systematic way with only a few clicks of configuration.
2. Use secure passwords: we have several bad practices when defining passwords, such as using important dates, making combinations of names and surnames, using places that have marked our lives, using the same password in several services or devices that we access, among others. Passwords must meet three basic conditions to make them secure. The first condition is that they must be at least 8 characters long, contain a capital letter, numbers and special characters. The second condition is that they must be random, avoiding the use of personal information. The third condition is that they must be changed periodically. Similar to the previous point, there are applications that help us in the process of creating and managing our passwords securely.
3. Strengthen email security: In this type of application that we use on a daily basis, whether in institutional or private mailboxes, we also expose a lot of personal information without even being aware of it. We should also incorporate some good practices, which take only a few minutes of our time, but pay off handsomely. First, set up message filtering and especially anti-spam filters. Second, set up encryption for the messages we send. Finally, if an email gets past our filters and we’re thinking of opening it, we should make sure it’s from a familiar source and that the attached content doesn’t seem suspicious. If there’s any doubt, it’s better to keep the questionable email in quarantine until we’re certain about its contents.
4. Periodic digital cleaning: just as we do in our homes, we must do the same with our data stores, select what is important, multiply the storage and clean what is no longer of interest or no longer valid. For these actions we must ensure that we have storage capacity on the devices we use every day, on other devices external to these, and in the cloud with services for this purpose. The key words here are “backup” and “secure deletion”. Fortunately we still have applications or settings in the applications and operating systems we use that can do these tasks for us.
5. Browsing secure websites: Generally, as users we are very trusting and when browsing the internet, we don’t stop to check if we’re using secure sites. It is true that many of us have no idea how to know. It turns out that we simply have to verify that the address or link displayed in our browser begins with “https://” because that simple “s” at the end guarantees that the website is using a secure connection and information exchange protocol.
6. Private browsing and zero cookies: Every day, we confidently use various devices with our institutional or private credentials and common browsers like Microsoft Edge, Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox, without using “private mode.” It’s a good practice to make using private mode a habit when using digital technologies. Additionally, after browsing, it’s important to delete cookies to prevent them from being vulnerable to cyber attacks. When using private browsing, it’s advisable not to connect to unfamiliar public Wi-Fi networks unless you’re using a virtual private network (VPN) or another encryption mechanism.
7. Cross-access protection: At home or work, we often have traditional security systems with multiple steps or isolated components for entry. We should adopt a similar approach for our device and account access, whether it’s for user profiles, social media, or banking. Instead of using one-step setups, it’s crucial to implement at least two-step access. For example, combining a password with a security pattern on the same device, or using a 4-digit PIN along with a security code sent to another connected device or email account. Other mechanisms, like combining fingerprint recognition with a PIN or security code, are also effective. This practice is highly important for safeguarding our personal data.
8. Digital blackout: The era of electricity has brought both positive and negative impacts on our technological habits. One negative practice is the casual declaration of always being connected. Beyond the ecological implications, let’s focus on the digital security aspect. Keeping a user session or network active on a device not in use for an extended period, whether hours or days, poses a significant risk. The simple rule is: unnecessary open sessions and active networks increase the likelihood of attackers intercepting and hacking our data. To ensure digital security, it’s essential to log out of devices not in use for extended periods and physically shut down networks or disconnect devices when staying connected is unnecessary.

The digital age has given us many benefits and made our daily lives more convenient, but it also highlights the importance of ensuring security in its use.

Furthermore, it’s crucial to understand that the internet isn’t a vast, empty space; it’s more like a bustling mega-city where we all coexist and navigate its digital streets. Security becomes achievable only when we work together. It’s only through collective efforts that we can hope to experience a safe internet in the future!

Febe Ciudad – Computer Sciences Teacher