So this is another edition of Tom's tech tips This is a a cyber security special where we're gonna cover child safety for the summer. And I'm joined by my daughter am, and we're gonna talk about a whole bunch of things today. We're gonna be brief because we we covered these all in detail in longer tech tips. We're gonna start off with good username hygiene. Sam, when you talk about usernames, what's something, what's some good tips for someone, you know, under eighteen when they're creating a username, what should they not do? You shouldn't include your name, your last name, anything to do with your location, your name, your, like, town, and identifiable information? Yeah. Perfect. Some some games give you an option to scramble it. So, like, it could be a random word a random animal and done a bunch of numbers so that you it protects you a little more. Other times, some people, for example, on video game platform, know my brother has used, like, a username, gamermaster. That doesn't have any contacts of what his name is, where he lives, for more personal information that someone can use against him. Awesome. So how about password? So let's talk about good password hygiene. For people under eighteen and really for everybody. Right? So passwords should be secure and something that maybe is, like, close to or something that no one would really guess. So it's not something super simple, like, one, two, three, four, five, or something super, like, complex that you won't remember easily, and you have to check every time to make sure it's like, oh, wait. I think I forgot it. We're on accidentally locking yourself at. So you wanna make it something that you'll remember, and you kind of will know. Like, I've memorized my password because it's so familiar with with me that I understand it, and I feel like no one would guess it. Something you'd remember, but not easy for other people to figure out. Exactly. How do you store passwords? It's a safe way to keep a password. So most of the time when you're saving a password or when you first enter a game or something you're doing, it will give you an option on either a computer, an iPhone, an Android, whatever you at, computer, or something you device you're using, it'll give you an option to save the password to the actual device so that you'll save it into, like, a vault full of passwords where you can have all your passwords saved and look back at them to make sure they're right. So you're not writing it down on paper. You're not putting it in a document you're not sending in an email. You're only using a password goal that's part of your operating system. So if it's part of Google Chrome, your iOS or Apple device, your Android device, or a path approved password vault, use the word vault. Those are all really good things. So who do you give your passwords to? You would only give your passwords to your parents or guardians because not not friends because they can accidentally link the information without knowing or without doing it on purpose. The same thing with civil they don't they could do leak it by accident, and you don't want your password getting out, obviously. So you should only share it with parents regarding Awesome. And aside from that on passwords, let's move on to what happens in a video game Let's say your parents do leave the chat open and someone asks you a question, asks you for information, asks you for a picture, wants to give you a gift, What do you do? You never give them a picture or information about your life, especially since you don't know them. Or if you do, You might think you know them, but sometimes it's called hackers or people who take things and log in. On their own time or just take them so that they could get your own information tricking you into thinking they're your friends or that you know them. Or that you don't even know them at all and just bribe you with, like he said, presence or something valuable in a game. Very good. And then last but certainly not least is who do you share pictures with? You shouldn't truly share pictures with anyone accept when it's on, like, a messages through, like, an iPhone or an Android, not even Gmail, I wouldn't, like, say because and if you know that person on, for example, gaming complexes, you can make group chats so that you could text with all other people and they'll I'll name reveal picture reveal. If I send a picture of me, for example, in my softball uniform or any uniform, that your kid might wear. It usually says your town name, your town, like, sport name and your last name on the sure. And, of course, there's gonna be a background. Which the background can give you too much, clues and evidence, and then your last name, they can look up and find where you are. And with your your town name, then they can find out probably where the you go to school, which limits it down to a more in information, and then being closer to find you. And when you start off by saying in messages, you mean text messages of people that you know. And a good rule of thumb is we just don't share anything personal, right, any personal information with anybody, if someone asks you for something, you always wanna validate who it is. What if a friend sends you a message and asks you personal information like your name or address. What's a good way to respond? Well, you I would probably say, like, text text your parent tell the parents to text on my parents or my guardians so that you can trust those. I feel like more parents are more trustworthy. If some people can see the other chats, it's not only you guys, you could do private chats, but there's ways that people can see into your private chats so that not all that information is safe and plasma.
