New kinds of scams and misinformation are targeting children. Some are designed to deceptively get sensitive information about your child, to have them pay for a product that doesn’t exist, or to believe something is that is a lie. Each of these affect children differently and all are damaging to a child.

Here is a list of things to show your child online that often aim to deceive them:

Latest kind of scam is major names and celebrities being paid to use songs in their videos on TikTok without declaring that the transaction has taken place. This is illegal as it is deception. If it wasn’t a scam they would have added #ad to the post to show that they are being paid.
Quizzes on social media are a big non-no! They usually have one aim in mind and that’s to get your child’s personal information.
Any promotional offer to a videogame that is not offered on the game’s site. Offers on 3rd party sites often aim to get your child’s personal information (see image).
Clickbait. These are online ads or headlines that you find hard to believe so you click on them. They usually have exaggerations in them, like: “Unbelievable” “Life-changing”. The aim is to make you so curious that you click. Once you click you may be convinced to enter your personal information, click on a link that might take you to a site such as a porn site, or read something that is totally false that someone will gain from you reading.

Online scams are up 55% in the last 12 months. Teaching children you to spot them is an ongoing part of our role.

Examples of misinformation to teach children