Screens have become part of the everyday landscape for virtually every family. TikTok, Roblox, and YouTube are familiar names even to the youngest members of the household, who use them to play, learn, or communicate. But while technology offers them countless opportunities, it also opens the door to risks that were unthinkable only a few years ago. Cybersecurity in childhood is, now more than ever, an issue that requires attention, dialogue, and education.
Why cybersecurity is something you learn
More and more families and educators feel overwhelmed by the speed at which digital platforms change and by what those changes mean for their children and students. What yesterday was an innocent game can now include social features, in-app purchases, or messaging with strangers. TikTok and Roblox are not “bad” in themselves, but they do require guidance. Children and adolescents are still learning to distinguish between what is public and what is private, between a real friendship and a suspicious contact, between human faces and faces with filters, between real images and images generated by artificial intelligence… and between fun and risk.
Teaching cybersecurity does not mean instilling fear; it means giving young people the tools to navigate the web with judgment. It involves helping them gradually understand what information they should not share, what is real and what is part of the “fiction” that these platforms hide, how to recognize inappropriate interactions or behavior, and why certain links or messages should be treated with caution. Open discussion of these topics is the best form of prevention.
Educating is not forbidding — it is accompanying
The temptation to ban social networks or video games is understandable, but it rarely works. Children and adolescents will eventually find ways to connect to the internet and access these platforms, and they will do so without the necessary guidance. For that reason, it is often far more effective to accompany them: show interest in what they do online, sit with them, and share the discovery of the digital environment.
When parents and children set an account’s privacy settings together, review the comments on a video, or talk about what they see on the screen, trust is built. That trust is the foundation on which real safety is constructed. Digital education is not imposed overnight: it is cultivated, like any other form of learning.
Computational thinking and digital awareness
At Codelearn we work from the conviction that understanding how the surrounding technology works helps you use it better, and that includes developing sound judgment on these platforms. Computational thinking—the ability to break problems down, analyze patterns, and anticipate consequences—enables children to view the digital world with a more critical perspective.
Learning to program is not just about writing code: it is about learning how to think. Those who understand how data are processed, what lies behind an algorithm, or how information circulates on the internet are better prepared to protect themselves as users of that environment. Education in cybersecurity and instruction in programming go hand in hand: both form a core competency for the twenty-first century.
Preparing children for a safe digital future
Child cybersecurity is not merely a matter of installing parental controls or limiting screen time. It is about teaching responsibility, empathy, and critical thinking. It is about helping them understand that technology is neither good nor bad in itself; what determines right and wrong is how we use it.
At Codelearn we want young people not only to know how to use technology but to understand and master it. Educating in the digital age does not mean avoiding risks; it means preparing new generations to face them with knowledge, judgment, and confidence. The best protection we can offer is not a single password but a solid education in digital values and computational thinking.