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Educate Children About Cyber Fraud With ‘ABCs of Fraud’

It is important to raise children’s awareness about risky online behavior from a young age to keep them safe and maybe even inspire a new generation of fraud fighters. To help adults educate their children about a myriad of online fraud types and how to avoid bad people on the internet, Arkose Labs has launched a unique alphabet book named ‘ABCs of Fraud’.

It is not just adults who are practically living online, children as young as five are also using digital channels for a number of activities. The pandemic accelerated the pace at which children began using the internet for online classes, entertainment, and socializing. JAMA Pediatrics’ recent research shows a two-fold increase in children’s screen time since before the pandemic. PEW Research’s findings reveal that more than a third of children began interacting with devices before the age of five.

Today children have easy access to mobile phones, tablets, and the internet. Many children have their own accounts on school, gaming, and entertainment sites – and the numbers are growing at rates never before seen prior to 2020. According to OFCOM, 50% of children in the UK play games online, 30% use social media apps or sites, 96% use video sharing platforms and 33% use messaging apps.

Attackers target online activities popular among children

Spending more time online and engaging in numerous online activities on the internet is making children increasingly vulnerable to cyber fraud at a much younger age. It also opens up multiple attack points for fraudsters to attack through.

Our own report reveals that in the recent months, online fraud rose 85% and more than a fifth of all online traffic is an attack. Not just fraudsters but Master Fraudsters – the worst category of fraudsters – are going all guns blazing after gaming, online streaming, and social media sites. These are the most popular online activities for children and, therefore, the most dangerous too.

Although kids are now more familiar with the internet and can navigate it like an expert, they are not necessarily aware of the types of threats that await them online. They may not be able to recognize instances where cyber criminals try to take advantage of their naivety.

Educate children about online threats with ‘ABCs of Fraud’

Online fraud is difficult for adults to spot and to expect a young child to know what online fraud looks like is a tall ask. That’s why it is important to start raising children’s awareness about attack types like bots, phishing scams, and social engineering as early as possible. As responsible adults, it is our duty to protect our children from cyber threats. Just like we teach our children to be wary of talking to strangers in real life, we must make efforts to educate our children so they can avoid bad people lurking on the internet.

At Arkose Labs, we are on a mission to create an online environment where all consumers are protected from malicious activity – and this includes children. We are aware of the existing gaps and lack of resources that obstruct educating children about fraud in a child-friendly way. To provide adults with such a tool that can help them educate their children about risky online behavior from a young age, as well as inspire a new generation of fraud fighters, we have launched a book named ‘ABCs of Fraud’. It is an alphabet book that enables adults to have serious conversations about the dangers of online fraud through sensitive imagery and language appropriate for primary-age children.

From ‘A is for Account Takeover’ to ‘Z is for Zero Trust’, the book provides simple statements, colorful illustrations and real-life examples to explain the complexities of online fraud. It also provides adults with an opportunity to discuss actionable safety tips that can help equip children to safely navigate the web – whether they are playing games with friends or doing homework – and avoid fraudsters’ tricks and scams.

Help make the internet safer for children

I am happy that our CEO Kevin Gosschalk and I could visualize and co-author a unique guide, which even cybersecurity professionals can use to explain the important work they do to the kids in their lives. They can use this book to engage with children to share stories about their careers, experiences, and how they are making the digital world a safer place for everyone. The book covers many types of cybersecurity issues, which gives cyber pros the ability to talk about a range of issues and how many of them are interrelated, when trying to stop bad actors. 

We are committed to making the internet safer for everyone. To further promote children’s online safety from fraudsters, we have decided to donate all the profits from the book to a non-profit organization. Come, be part of this initiative. Order your limited edition copy of the book for free here.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Arkose Labs authored by Vanita Pandey. Read the original post at: https://www.arkoselabs.com/blog/educate-children-about-cyber-fraud-with-abcs-of-fraud/