New Digital Thumbprint Passphrases and Passwords Activity Book

With so much of our lives lived online these days, the need to stay cybersafe is only increasing. To help young kids just starting out with their own technology learn about the importance of strong passphrases and passwords, Optus Digital Thumbprint has launched an Activity Book.

Designed to be fun as well as informative, the Passphrases and Passwords Activity Book supports young children to learn some fundamental digital defence moves by setting up strong passphrases.

Digital Thumbprint is encouraging kids to replace their passwords with passphrases as the longer phrase is a more secure version of passwords which sadly are often easy to guess.

By using the Passphrase Activity sheet kids can devise and keep their online passphrase handy and also provides kids with important contact information if they need help.

Become a 'Passphrase Expert'

1. Make sure your passphrase has nothing to do with your name, birthday or address.
2. Use a string of words with no connection.
3. Use at least 10 characters, although the longer the better as they will be harder to crack.
4. Use uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols to create your passphrases, for example: PinkC1oud$T!meJ3lly
5. Don’t save your passphrases on your device or computer and don’t share your passphrases with friends.
6. Try to use different passphrases for each online account and change them regularly.

Help your child by following these simple steps together and write them down in the Passphrase Passport:

Think of an animal, a colour, a place and a food, say, snail red beach sushi

Then they could list the four in a row with no spaces, for example, snailredbeachsushi

Then they could change the first letter of each word to a capital letter, for example, SnailRedBeachSushi

And lastly, they could replace some of the characters with numbers and symbols, for example, Sn@!1R3dBeachSu5h

If you have older children, they could use a cloud-based passphrase saver.

(It’s important that children create their own passphrase) and never share it with anyone other than you.

Parents can help educate their kids about online safety by encouraging their child to log into their online accounts and try these tips at home:

• Log in to all accounts and help your child reset their passwords to their new passphrases.
• Keep your child’s privacy safe by making sure all accounts and location settings are set to private.
• Support your child to set up multi-factor authentication (MFA) for each account if possible.
• Explore the steps to block and report a user in case your child ever feels uncomfortable online

The Digital Thumbprint colouring and word search sheets will be available in Optus retail stores from early March 2024.

The Passphrase Activity Book follows on from the Digital Thumbprint guide, Protecting your identity - Passphrases, passwords and MFA that help your young people (especially tweens) protect personal information from hackers and scammers.

Read our article on Protecting kids from hackers, scammers and fake friends.

For young people

• Blocking unwanted contact guide
• Cyberbullying quiz
• Cyberbullying: what to do when things go wrong guide
• Digital Balance quiz
• Fake friends and fake profiles quiz
• Hackers, scammers and fake friends guide
• Lifehacks for a balanced time online guide
• Passphrases, passwords and MFA guide and quiz
• Protecting personal information quiz
• Scammers and fake friends quiz

For Families

• Balancing time online guide
• Blocking unwanted contact for your child guide
• Cyberbullying: What to say when things go wrong online guide
• First Phone Readiness guide and quiz
• Passphrases, passwords and MFA for your child guide
• Recognising hackers, scammers and fake friends guide
• Safeguard your child’s privacy on popular apps and games guide
• Stay ahead of scams through family discussions guide

eSafety Commissioner to report cyberbullying, image-based abuse, and illegal and restricted content

Australian Cyber Security Centre - Auto report cybercrime, including online threats and abuse, scams and hacks, data breaches, identity theft and fraud.

Scamwatch to report scams.

Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation to report online grooming and inappropriate contact

IDCARE to get identity theft, data breach, scam and cyber security support.

If your child needs to talk to someone about their feelings or worries, they can contact:

Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 for free, private and confidential 24/7 phone and online counselling services.

13YARN on 13 92 76 (24/7) for a free, private and confidential talk with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Crisis Supporter.

Optus Digital Thumbprint supports digital safety and wellbeing for young people and families. Find out more at www.digitalthumbprint.com.au