Safe and Savvy: Cyber Safety for Irvington Families

The talk page on the Cyber Defenders site.

I have been invited to talk to parents at the Irvington High School PTSA in Fremont. I am presenting next week, on Thursday, November 5, from 6 to 7 pm PST, on Zoom. The talk is called Safe and Savvy: Cyber Safety for Irvington Families.

I teach cybersecurity at Merritt College, and I work as a security engineer. But talking to parents of teenagers is different from talking to students. Parents don’t want a lecture on firewalls. They want to know what to do tonight. So before I stand up in front of them, I want your help.

What do you think parents of teens most need to know? What would you put in a family’s cybersecurity habits?

What I plan to cover

This is my current list. It is built from the NIST research on how teens and parents think about privacy and security, plus advice from Fremont PD, ConnectSafely, the American Academy of Pediatrics and NCMEC.

  • Voice scams. AI can copy a teen’s voice from a few seconds of video. A “mom, I’m in trouble, send money” call can sound real. Pick a family password that only you know, and use it when something feels off.
  • Game cheats and malware. A kid downloads a Roblox cheat, and the malware reaches Dad’s accounts. We talk about how that happens and how to decide if a download is safe.
  • Privacy and location. I plan to do a short exercise with a fictional teenager, “Maya”, and ask what a stranger can learn about her from her public posts.
  • Group chats, bullying and AI-faked images. What to say, what to save, and where to report. Take It Down from NCMEC is one place to start.
  • AI chatbots. They are tools, not friends. Agree on how your family will use them.
  • Passwords. Use a password manager (Apple Passwords, Google, 1Password, Bitwarden) and turn on two-step login. NIST found that a lot of people still reuse passwords.
  • A family media agreement. Write it together with your kids, so it is not only rules from the parents.

Every parent picks one thing to do that night. I think one small thing done tonight is worth more than a long list of things people forget.

Where I would like your help

  • What is the one thing you wish your own parents, or your kid’s school, had told you about being online?
  • If you have teens, what worked at home, and what did not?
  • If you work in security, what do you tell your own family and friends?
  • Is there a scam going around in your area that I should mention? I plan to talk about the ones Fremont PD warns about.
  • What did I leave out?

I would also like to know if something on my list is wrong or too much for one evening. The session is interactive, so I would rather fix it now than in front of the parents. I have a week, so please reply soon.

The slides

The slides are online, and you can look at them before the talk:

If this goes well, I would like to do a second session just on careers in cybersecurity for teens and parents.

Comment below, or message me on LinkedIn. I will read every reply, and I will share what changed in the talk after I present on November 5.