5 Hidden Online Threats For Your Kids
When I speak with American parents—from single moms in New York to busy fathers in Texas—the fear is universal: “My kids live online. How do I keep them safe from what I can’t see?” The truth, as explored in Privacy Is Possible , is that the most dangerous digital threats your children face are silent, invisible, and deeply embedded into the online experiences they use every day.
In 2025, the greatest risks aren’t hackers or cybercriminals lurking in dark corners of the Internet. They’re the everyday apps your kids use for school, entertainment, chatting, gaming, and socialising. These platforms collect data relentlessly—behavioural data, emotional data, location data, psychological data. The result is a detailed blueprint of your child’s mind before they can legally sign their own name
The New Frontier of Digital Threats
1. Behavioural Profiling
Apps track how fast your child scrolls, how often they pause, what they search, what they fear, and what keeps their attention. This data becomes part of long-term behavioral profiles used for targeted advertising—or worse, manipulation.
2. AI-Driven Algorithms
Artificial intelligence is now powerful enough to predict moods, insecurities, and vulnerabilities. Children who search for body image content might be shown increasingly extreme videos, deepening anxiety.
3. Location Tracking
Some apps track location down to the exact house. Teenagers often unknowingly give permission to apps that can follow them home, to school, or to a friend’s house.
4. Digital Strangers
Social media makes it easy for adults to masquerade as children. Even gaming platforms aimed at young kids can become channels for inappropriate contact.
5. Data Brokers
Companies buy and sell children’s data—yes, even minors’. Everything from their favourite foods to their sleep schedule becomes part of a marketplace.
Why This Matters More for Children
These hidden online threats for your kids are important. Unlike adults, children lack the cognitive development to understand risk. Their digital footprints begin before they reach kindergarten, and those traces often remain forever. Photos shared by parents, school platforms, and apps form a permanent record that your child never consented to.
In Privacy Is Possible, I highlight how children’s identities can be compromised long before adulthood . In fact, children are now the fastest-growing victims of identity theft in the U.S. This is one the biggest hidden online threats for your kids.
What Parents Should Do Immediately
• Audit Your Child’s Apps: Look at permissions. If the app doesn’t need the microphone or location—turn it off.
• Use Privacy-Based Browsers and Search Engines: Protect your child’s curiosity without feeding corporate profiling.
• Teach Your Kids About Private vs. Public Information: Not everything needs to be shared—especially location, school details, and personal photos.
• Model Good Digital Habits: Children mirror parent behaviour. If you overshare, they will too.
• Set Clear Digital Boundaries: No phones in the bedroom at night. No anonymous chatting. No private social profiles for minors.
• Assume Every Platform Is Watching: Because it is. Awareness reduces vulnerability.
Academic Reference
Odgers, C. & Jensen, M. (2020). Annual Research Review: Adolescent mental health in the digital age. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
Book Recommendation
“Raising Humans in a Digital World” by Diana Graber
An excellent guide for parents navigating digital safety and ethics. The author writes about the digital world that our children contend with – in way that does not shame or debase tech companies, but rather makes a strong case for the need to help children (and adults!) understand how to deal responsibly and ethically with our digital citizenship.
Some of the information in this book will be shocking to adults – there is so much that our children have to contend with of which we are not always aware! Read this book, download the study guide, and work with your community to find ways to support our children and learn more about being a responsible digital citizen!!
