Hi, welcome to Internet Safety for Kids and thank you for joining our program!
As always with our program Internet Safety for Kids, please make sure to watch this episode together when possible, so you all learn and understand these important topics. Don’t allow the adults to say that they already know everything because there will be plenty to learn for them, too!
When you get free Wi-Fi somewhere it might seem great, right? You can use the internet as much as you want, and it doesn’t consume your mobile data. There are many places where you can use free internet and there are new places coming all the time. But is using free Wi-Fi always a good idea? And when you use free Wi-Fi, what should you and what should you not do? That is our topic for today!
We will explain why is it important, what does it mean, and what should you do. Are you with us?
Did you know that hackers really like to make fake free Wi-Fi hotspots to be able to get access to people’s data and devices? And a lot of the real free Wi-Fi hotspots have very poor security, so hackers also enjoy using those. WOW! That doesn’t sound good, and it would already be enough reason not to use free Wi-Fi when you think about it. But there is even more to think about before you use free Wi-Fi or a public hotspot.
Many companies that offer free Wi-Fi do that through a service provider that tracks you and collects your data for their advertisement, and you have to approve that before you can use their Wi-Fi. That is something you give them permission for when you click on that agree or accept box. A lot of them keep tracking you and collecting data about you after you have used their free Wi-Fi. So, that means that free is not really free because you are paying with your data, and you have to hope that they keep your data safe. The many data breaches we can read about in the news show us that many companies do not keep your data safe, so we recommend not to use so called free Wi-Fi that you can only use when you allow them to track you.
An important tool to protect you is VPN. When you use VPN on your mobile device, it protects all connections with encryption. This means that hackers are not able to steal your data and that tracking companies have a hard time collecting your data. Some Wi-Fi and hotspot suppliers do not allow you to use VPN on their network, and that should really make you think, right? We recommend to not use any network that does not allow you to use VPN!
There are of course also a lot of places where you can get free Wi-Fi which is really free and not tracking you. There are some things you need to take care of to enjoy these hotspots and when you do that, you can enjoy the internet without worries. But it is important that you take these precautions always when you want to use a free internet connection, so let us make some notes to help you remember these steps.
- Make sure that your device does not join hotspots automatically.
- Make sure you have VPN installed and that it is active before you connect to hotspots or free Wi-Fi.
- Do not connect to networks that do not allow you to use VPN.
- We recommend to not accept networks that require your approval to track you and collect data on you.
- As always, take a moment to think before you do something. This will help you prevent mistakes.