Kids and family online safety
Age-by-age guidance for parents: parental controls on phones and consoles, talking about scams and sextortion, gaming safety, and a family tech agreement you can adapt.
Start with conversations, add controls
Parental controls help, but no filter catches everything, and children are often more skilled with technology than adults. The most protective thing a parent can do is make sure their child will tell them when something online feels wrong, without fear of losing their device. Say it out loud: "If anything online ever scares or confuses you, you can tell me and you will not be in trouble."
Age-by-age guide
| Age | Focus |
|---|---|
| Under 8 | Shared devices in shared spaces, child profiles, approved apps only, no open chat |
| 8 to 12 | First own device with strong controls, gaming chat limited to friends, teach "never share personal info" and "tell me about anything weird" |
| 13 to 15 | Social media at the platform's minimum age (usually 13), private accounts, talk about scams, pressure and sharing images |
| 16 and up | More independence, focus on passwords, 2FA, privacy settings, money scams and digital reputation |
Built-in parental controls
- Apple: Screen Time and Family Sharing let you set downtime, app limits, content ratings, and "Ask to Buy" for purchases.
- Google: Family Link manages Android devices and Google accounts for children, including app approvals and location.
- Microsoft: Microsoft Family Safety for Windows PCs and Xbox, with screen time and content filters.
- Consoles: Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch each have parental control apps that limit chat, purchases and play time.
- Router or DNS filtering: a family-friendly DNS service filters adult content for every device on your Wi-Fi. See home Wi-Fi.
Turn off in-app purchases or require approval, and set content ratings to match your child's age.
Gaming safety
Many games include voice and text chat with strangers. Set chat to "friends only" for younger children, review friend lists together, and explain common gaming scams: free in-game currency generators, "trading" items outside the game, and fake login pages. Account theft of valuable game accounts is common, so turn on 2FA for the child's game accounts too.
Sextortion: talk about it before it happens
Sextortion is when someone tricks a young person into sending an intimate image and then threatens to share it unless they pay or send more. The FBI has issued repeated warnings about financially motivated sextortion targeting teenage boys in particular. Tell your teen:
- People online are not always who they say they are, even on video.
- If it happens, it is not their fault, they should stop responding, not pay, keep the messages as evidence and tell a trusted adult immediately.
- Help exists. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Take It Down service helps remove or stop the spread of intimate images of minors, and reports can be made to the CyberTipline or the FBI.
If a child is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services. For sextortion in the US, report to the FBI (tips.fbi.gov) and NCMEC's CyberTipline.
Teach the scam basics early
- Never share passwords, even with friends.
- Free stuff that asks for a login or a card number is a trap.
- Ask before downloading anything or clicking links in game chats.
- Real friends will not pressure you to keep secrets from your parents.
A simple family tech agreement
Write a short agreement together and revisit it each year:
- Devices charge outside bedrooms overnight.
- We ask before downloading apps or making purchases.
- We keep accounts private and only accept people we know in real life.
- We never share our address, school, passwords or private photos.
- If something online feels wrong, we tell a parent, and the parent stays calm.
- Parents follow the screen-time rules too.
