GATINEAU – In honour of Data Privacy Day on Thursday, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is offering families a new interactive tool to help parents manage the online risks facing their children.
Known as House Rules, the tool allows parents to assess how their children interact online through games, mobile applications and social networking sites as a means of starting a dialogue on safe and responsible surfing. It also offers simple tips that families can customize into their very own 'House Rules' that can be printed off and posted in a common area as a reminder of how to protect privacy online.
Some examples include:
– We will think about the footprint we leave online with our comments, pictures and videos, and control what others see about us to leave a good impression. We will ask ourselves ‘What would Grandma, Grandpa or a favourite teacher think if he or she saw this?’
– We will make our passwords hard to guess and we will not share our passwords. It is important to know that some people do go into other people's accounts and try to cause trouble;
– We will work with an adult we trust to learn how to post things online, and only post things that we are okay with anybody seeing.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada also unveiled a new tip sheet for individuals to help all Canadians become more familiar with the basics of privacy protection.
"We want families to consider their online behaviour and how personal information may be collected, used and disclosed so that children will learn to think twice before sharing any sensitive details”, said Commissioner Daniel Therrien, in the news release. "Having a privacy plan setting out the family dos and don'ts can help everyone work together to protect privacy."
