The age at which children have access to phones, tablets, laptops, and thus the internet, is dramatically lower than it once was. In the UK, the average age at which a child receives their first smartphone is between 10 and 11 years old (Familyaction.org.uk).
That’s such a young and vulnerable age. As the age of access to the internet and social media drops, more must be done to educate children about the risks of being online. Below are some of the top online threats to talk to your children about.
Data Privacy and Oversharing Information
April 2026 ICO research found that 24% of UK primary-aged children have shared their real name or address online. 22% of them have shared personal information, such as health details, with AI tools.
Children simply don’t understand the risks of sharing personal details online. They can reveal information through:
- Usernames
- Photos
- School uniforms
- Location tags, birthdays, gaming profiles, and quizzes
- Conversations with people they meet online
The concept of a digital footprint isn’t really understood. Information shared today may be copied, screenshotted, or combined with other information and become difficult to control later, so it’s essential to teach children the risks.
UK protections do exist. The ICO’s Children’s Code expects services likely to be accessed by children to use high-privacy defaults and switch off non-essential geolocation by default.
Educating your children on how VPNs can help protect personal information by encrypting internet traffic is also useful, especially on public Wi-Fi networks. If you click here, you can find information about servers and the benefits of a VPN for online privacy to help you teach your children.
Cyberbullying on Social Media
Cyberbullying on social media is a big worry for parents and an even bigger issue that children are facing regularly. Ofcom conducted research earlier in 2026 that found 23% of 8-to-17-year-olds who answered the question had personally experienced someone being ‘nasty or hurtful’ to them during the previous year, with 47% of those children experiencing it through social media.
Cyberbullying can feel different from schoolyard bullying. Some of the issues are:
- Nasty messages, including from unknown senders.
- Images or rumours can spread rapidly.
- The bullying continues after the child leaves school or goes home.
Cyberbullying can be everything from exclusion from group chats to spreading rumours and harassment during online gaming.
Educate your children on how to block users and save evidence, such as screenshots, if further action is needed. If it’s persistent, online bullying can be reported to the school or even the police.
Financial Scams From Phishing Emails or Fake Ads
UK Finance recorded almost £1.3 billion stolen through fraud in 2025. For authorised push payment fraud specifically, 66% of cases originated online.
It’s easier than you think to fall for phishing emails and fake ads, especially for younger users attracted to cheaper products or adverts for concert tickets, gaming items, or electronics. The NCSC warns that modern scams are becoming harder to identify and can arrive through:
- Texts
- Phone calls
- Social media
- QR codes
Children should learn that scammers may imitate brands, delivery companies, gaming companies, banks, competitions or even people they know to obtain passwords, payment details or convince them to click malicious links.
GOV.UK advises forwarding suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk and suspicious texts to 7726.
The internet is definitely a dangerous place, but also one that you can’t keep your children from forever. Educating them about the risks and what to do about those risks if they encounter them is more of a forward-thinking approach than simply trying to keep them away from social media or the internet.
