Urgent: 10 Initiatives for Ensuring Child CyberSafety

CHILDREN’S DATA IS IT SAFE?

Are you taking the initiatives to ensure child data safety online? As someone who places a high priority on child safety, I understand the urgency for the central office IT department and the supplier/manager of a Scouts or Guides membership management system (MMS) to take immediate action to protect sensitive information and ensure safety in their respective communities. However, I acknowledge that implementing these initiatives is not always easy.

Coupled with limited resources and expertise, challenges may arise in conducting a thorough risk assessment, establishing strong access controls, and encrypting sensitive data. Furthermore, software and system updates may be time-consuming and costly. Despite these obstacles, I recognize that failure to implement these initiatives could have dire consequences, jeopardizing the safety of vulnerable children. Therefore, it is critical that both entities work together and take action to protect sensitive information and ensure the safety of ALL children.

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Child Cybersafety - A Serious Checklist.

Data encryption: Encrypt all data, both in transit and at rest, to help prevent unauthorized access.
Access controls: Implement access controls to restrict access to sensitive information, such as emergency contact information, to authorized personnel only.
Regular security updates: Regularly update the MMS to help protect against potential threats, such as hacking and data breaches.
User training: Provide training to all users on how to use the MMS securely and responsibly.
Incident response plan: Develop an incident response plan outlining the steps that will be taken in the event of a security breach.
Regular backups: Perform regular backups of the MMS to ensure that data can be restored in the event of a system failure.
Third-party security assessments: Regularly perform third-party security assessments to identify potential vulnerabilities in the MMS.
Compliance with regulations: Ensure that all data processed by the MMS is in compliance with relevant regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
User authentication: Implement robust user authentication methods, such as multi-factor authentication, to help prevent unauthorized access to the MMS.
Regular reviews: Regularly review and assess the security practices of the MMS to ensure that they are meeting the evolving needs of the guides or scouts community.

Duty of care is not solely the domain of the Membership Organisation, it is domain of all providers and Membership Management Software providers in particular. Ensure that your provider has undertaken ALL the measures needed to comply with the duty of care policies of the client organisation. At a minimum the provider should be complying with The Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) in Australia, Children’s Online Privacy and Data Protection in Selected European Countries, COPPA in the United States. Also refers to my sister blog post: Ensuring The Security Of Your Membership Management System (MMS): A Vital Concern

REFERENCES

1. United Nations. (n.d.). Child and Youth Safety Online. https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/child-and-youth-safety-online

2. Djenie. (2023, May 3). 5 Vital Cybersecurity Strategies. Djenie Blog. https://djenie.com/blog/5-vital-cybersecurity-strategies/

Peter Riley

Peter Riley is an experienced writer, thespian, educator, businessman, and photographer. His writing is known for its clarity, wit, insights and humour. He loves the theatre. His driving passion is to help others understand. Photography is his outlet which slows down the world to one considered frame at a time. He welcomes the new world of Ai assistants and the help they’ll provide in letting him get on with his Peter powers. He always wanted his very own Robin, Batman has one.