Accounts on Instagram, TikTok or Amazon are secured with passwords. For example, strangers should not be able to access sensitive data such as address, account number, etc., or post or order things in the name of others. However, some passwords are so simple that they can be easily “cracked” by criminals with technical help. Children should learn what strong passwords look like as soon as they use digital devices or go online.
A secure password has at least 12 characters and consists of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters. Avoid personal passwords like your children’s birthdates, because they are easy to figure out with a little research. Sequences of numbers (for example, “12345”), alphabetical sequences of letters (such as “abcdefg”), or a sequence of adjacent keys on the keyboard (such as “qwertz”) are also not safe. Words that are not in any dictionary and have nothing to do with you or the service you are trying to sign up for are best.
Creating a secure password and remembering it in the long run is not that easy. A mnemonic helps with this. Think of a sentence that you can easily remember, for example “Elternguide.online informs and supports parents also in 2023!”. If you take out only the first letters, numbers and special characters of the sentence, the following password will be created: “Eoi+uEaiJ2023!” This string is safe and you will not forget it easily. If you can’t think of a phrase of your own, you can think of a proverb, for example, “When two quarrel, the third rejoices!” Or you can use the password generator from Data-Kids, which will help you and your child create such secure passwords!
A password should be changed regularly. It is recommended to use a separate password for each of the different platforms, as data leaks and theft of user data can always occur. Hackers could access all accounts if the same password was always used.
If you can’t or don’t want to remember so many different passwords, it’s best to use a password manager. This allows passwords to be managed and stored in encrypted form. You will then need to remember only one password for the manager. With the password key machine , parents and children can come up with password keys that are hard to forget.
You can read and view more about secure topics on the website of the German Federal Office for Information Security.
