After reading some helpful and wonderful post about the need to introduce young children to Bitcoin early, I started teaching my 11, 9 and 7 years old children Bitcoin education. I was teaching them about the operations of Bitcoin but I observed that they were always fascinated when I discuss wallets. Immediately they saw the worth of the Bitcoin I own in Dollars they crammed the value. Once they observed that Bitcoin has appreciated and the Dollar worth have increased, they would celebrate and hug themselves because daddy have made more money.
After few days, my children told me how they had informed their friends that I own Bitcoin and have “plenty dollars”. And my children advised these friends to tell their parents so that they can earn dollars.
Immediately I became concerned and scared. In my country the US dollar is highly valued and anyone that owns One Bitcoin is a Millionaire. Who are the parents or relative of these my children’s friends? Some might be criminals. I was scared because I can become a target of fraudsters, Kidnappers and armed robbery because of my children’s actions. Immediately I stopped the Bitcoin class and started teaching them cyber safety and general financial safety education.
Fraudsters are motivated by money and look for easiest possible ways to get vital information and children are very easy target for identity theft and other cyber and non-cyber crime. Younger children don’t fully understand security and are naïve to the need for security because they don’t necessarily comprehend the extent of online and offline risks. They might freely give out credentials like keys, usernames and passwords. Last year more than
1.25 million children in the US fell victim to cyber crime costing the families an average of more than $1.100 per attack.
Hence before we teach Bitcoin education, our children must be grounded in security education. As parent we should never share our keys, passwords or username with our children. I know children have a way of discovering this sensitive information such as passwords, but we must keep them secret or constantly change them. We must teach our children never to inform anyone about our financial investments or transactions. They must not make online purchases without our permission or guidance. Our children must know the dangers of clicking random links, sending or receiving suspicious emails, sharing personal information with friends and receiving credit cards. Teach them how to use nicknames, keep their online pictures generic, never share personal images and should always use family device or computer fully regulated by parents.