Data Privacy Day (known in Europe as Data Protection Day) is an international day that occurs annually on the 28th January, it first began in 2007 and has ran every year since. The purpose of the day is to raise awareness and promote privacy and data protection.

Protecting your personal information online is very important, particularly in the context of social networking and online shopping where your card details are involved. The educational focus has expanded over the past years to include families, consumers and businesses.

Ensuring you understand how to keep your personal information online safe is a key factor before teaching your children and young people how to keep themselves safe online. Nowadays, there are many useful websites that can teach you and your child on how to keep safe online.

The world of social media and the endless access to different website pages can be a daunting thought. Especially when trying to keep your children or young person safe online. With the right procuration’s and safety tips the internet could open up a wide range of opportunities for them.

To help your child or young person stay safe online and protect their personal information, we have come up with some top tips!

• Do not share personal information, things such as: address, phone number and email address.
• Be careful what websites you trust! Avoid using sites you have never heard of and only use age appropriate sites.
• Keep in mind that not everyone may be who they say they are.
• Keep your passwords private and safe.
• Think carefully to what you are about to post on social media and other sites.
• Don’t accept friendship requests from people that you don’t know and don’t meet up with people that you have met online. Speak to your legal guardian if anyone suggests this to you.

These are just a few top tips which can help to keep your child or young person safe online and teaching them the importance of online safety and the dangers if not handled with appropriately.

Data Privacy Day provides a great opportunity to remind children and young people the importance of staying safe online!