Sept. 15, 2026

Back-to-School Safety Tips Every Parent Needs with Cathy Pedrayes

Show Notes
Transcript

Cathy Pedrayes, TikTok’s “Mom Friend” and author of The Mom Friend Guide to Everyday Safety and Security, returns to The Running Wine Mom with practical back-to-school safety tips every parent can use without adding more fear to the school-year chaos.Host Samantha Cieslinski and Cathy talk about safer first-day photos, personalized backpacks, school data privacy, cyberattacks, phishing attempts, group chats, Snapchat, location sharing, and the one habit Cathy says matters most: keeping honest conversations open with your kids.In this episode, you’ll learn:

What not to reveal in first-day-of-school photos, including names, schools, birthdays, and other identifying details.
How to think about personalized backpacks and lunchboxes based on your child’s age, routine, and level of supervision.
What parents should know about school apps, portals, school-issued devices, passwords, and two-factor authentication.
How school cyberattacks can create follow-up phishing risks for families, and why unexpected school texts and links deserve a second look.
Why every additional app can create new privacy, security, and social risks for kids.
How a “no trouble for telling the truth and asking for help” approach can keep kids talking when something goes wrong online.

Episode chapters

00:00 , Welcome back, Cathy Pedrayes
00:59 , First-day-of-school photos: what not to post online
03:47 , Are personalized backpacks with kids’ names safe?
05:34 , School data privacy: apps, portals, and school-issued devices
07:21 , School cyberattacks and ransomware: what parents should do
11:55 , School group chats, Snapchat, and location sharing
16:25 , Cathy’s most important back-to-school safety takeaway
19:07 , Where to find Cathy

Links and resources

Cathy Pedrayes: Follow @cathypedrayes on TikTok and Instagram.
The Mom Friend Guide to Everyday Safety and Security
CISA K–12 Cybersecurity Foundations Resource Package
Episode 75: How to Stay Safe Online in a Digital World
The Running Wine Mom on Apple Podcasts
Samantha Cieslinski: Follow @therunningwinemom_ on Instagram.

If this episode helped you, share it with a mom who needs to hear it, subscribe to The Running Wine Mom, and leave a review. You are strong, you are capable, and you are amazing. Cheers!

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I would still be cautious of what kind of information

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I give about my kid to.

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The AI, knowing that, you know, it's not private, right?

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Welcome back to the Running Wine Mom podcast. I'm your host,

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Samantha Slinsky, aka the Running Wine Mom. I'm so excited

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because back by popular demand, Kathy Pedraez is here again.

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If you missed our first conversation, episode 75, Kathy is

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the safety expert behind Kathy Pedraez, the signature blue dress

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and pearls, former QVC host, and the author of the

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Mom Friend Guide to Everyday Safety and Security. Kathy is

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an expert about staying safe online. So today we're going

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to dive deep into back to school safety tips every

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mom needs. So Kathy, welcome back.

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Thank you.

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I can't believe episode 75.

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Was that the, that was the OG episode?

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Yes.

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And we are, this will probably be, I think this

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will be episode like 151. So you'll, you're double the

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episodes have happened.

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No, that's great.

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Back to school.

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Yeah, I know.

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It's been already in my district where we've been hit

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with so much stuff.

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And we will definitely get into that. But first, let's

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start with what every mom does the first day of

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school photos. And a lot of them go online. We're

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posting them. We're so excited to share. What should we

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not be posting when we're taking these photos?

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You know what else I've seen this year that's along

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the same vein as the AI photos? And I would just,

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you know, caution that with the AI chat, like it's,

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I think it's a great idea to make the little

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billboards so that you can keep it privately your first.

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Day of school, whatever.

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But I would still be cautious of what kind of

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information I give. about my kid to the AI knowing that,

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you know, it's not private, right? So that's something to

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throw out there. But I think in general information, whether

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it's on a chalkboard, whether it's something you created in

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an AI bot or something, you know, you're just writing

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with your hand, information that I wouldn't post publicly is names, school,

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I don't even like sharing grade.

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Well, I don't like being.

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Specific about grade level, although that's a little, but like

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I typically say like preschooler or like my elementary, I

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try to be like a little bit vague. I also

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don't share like birthdays. I also personally, there's a lot

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of considerations now about sharing kids' faces publicly because AI

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has gotten so good at piecing together all these little

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bits of information. And I know it's like, it sucks

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because Watching kids grow up on the internet is like,

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you know, whether they're your kids or your friends' kids, it's...

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It's one of like the small joys we have, right?

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Like kids are so innocent and they do like these

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cute things and it's so enjoyable. And it's like not

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fair that we have to think about this in like

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a creepy way. But it is something that a lot

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of parents are thinking about now. And it's something that

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I've personally made the decision for my family. I mean,

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you know, I don't have a private profile or anything

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like that.

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So those are considerations too. So for my profile.

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I don't post my kids because it's a public, like

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large profile. If I had a private profile with just

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like my closest 50 friends or something.

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Then, you know, maybe I'd be a little bit more

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open to it.

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But there's honestly at this point, like you have to

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really reconsider posting anything. But the way I do it,

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by the way, is I take pictures that are like

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for my family. And then I'll take pictures that are

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a public version of it. So for example, a more

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private version.

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Of a back to school post.

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Would be the kid, like maybe you have the kid's

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backpack or the kid just with their back to like

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the door. And then you have like their favorite stuffed

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animals in front of them. And like a little back

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to school, you know, that's like a cute way of

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sharing it without sharing, you know, too many personal details

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or the face. So there are ways to still share

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without taking on all.

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The risks, you know, you're trying to mitigate it a

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little bit.

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And so maybe not so much online, but a lot

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of times, like I know my kids get like a

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tag for their book bag that'll have their name on it.

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Or you have the like really cute pottery barn, you know,

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names that are sewn on. How do you manage that?

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Or everything has to be labeled like Do you think

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that's okay? Yes. Or do you think that's still.

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Honestly, I think it's probably mostly okay. It creeps me out.

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Because, like, if my kid was walking to school by

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themselves in New York City, I wouldn't do that because.

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That's way too much information to way too many strangers.

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But if I'm dropping off my preschooler every single day,

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then the risk is like much more small, much smaller, right?

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Because I'm physically walking them to the classroom, the backpack

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afterwards is physically coming with me staying in the car.

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So I think that's a consideration.

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But Another reason why I personally don't love them, I

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like the luggage tags. I also use the blue painter's tape,

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the thick one, and I just put that on the

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lunchbox so that I don't have to label it. But

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I don't like personalizing stuff because it makes it harder

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to reuse. I know with the older ages, sometimes it's

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hard to reuse the bags and stuff like that.

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But with the younger ones, they may not really destroy it.

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And so I don't like personalizing stuff because it makes

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it harder to pass down. The only things I like

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to personalize are things that I am going to keep forever,

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like a baby bib.

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Or I think when they go, if they do sleepaway camp,

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then I don't think you really have a choice.

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Yeah, very true. Okay, that's good. Yeah, I always wondered

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if that's like, should that be something or should that not?

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Yeah, I don't think there's any... like any real life

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incident tied to it.

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I think it's just, not that I found anyways, I

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think it's just, we think about it in a creepy

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way and we're probably right.

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Yeah. So can you talk to us about back to

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school data privacy, school apps, portals, school issue devices? What

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should parents be paying attention to? Yeah.

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You know, It's tough because those devices do have a

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lot of data. And I believe it's in California right now,

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like the Google Chromebooks and the data that they collect

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on students. There's like an active lawsuit about that because,

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you know, the companies say we don't collect or it's

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just for basic.

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You know, usage of the device.

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And then other people are saying, well, is it really?

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And so they're litigating that.

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But I think as a parent, the school should be having,

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it should have their settings on there, right? But I

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would always go through the settings.

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Boost all the top notch stuff, the two factor authentication,

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all of that. I would also, well, I don't know

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if there's a way, I would limit what, when they

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can use that device, right? Like, so if this is

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their school device and you're using it for homework, but

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you know that you don't have the same parental controls

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on it as you do as your home devices, you

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use it for the thing and then it goes away

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and then you use your home devices. where you know

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you have more control, you can see more things, etc.

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Another thing for older kids, and this is more like

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when they're, you know, about to graduate, but just something

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to keep in mind is that your, you know, your

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Google accounts, you don't own them, right?

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The district owns them.

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So if you have important notes or essays or anything

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like that, that you want copies of, because you want to,

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you know, you're going to college and you want to

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reference or whatever, you're probably going to lose all of

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that unless you back it up before.

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You hand everything in.

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So that's not really like a data privacy security thing,

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but it is something to keep in mind in general. Like,

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you know, it's not a private account. So don't upload

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weird things that you wouldn't want to be you know,

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compromised at some point just in case.

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Yeah, that's so, so true. And how about, I know

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in the tri-state area, there's been some cyber attacks happening

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with the school computers and systems. Should we be freaking

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out about this? What do we do about that?

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You know, it is a little scary because when you

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think of school critical systems going down, like that makes

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me think, how can they react in emergency situations? Like

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what other systems do they have in place? But I

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would say other than, you know, those like very logistical concerns.

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And I think in my school, they boosted like police

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presence and stuff like that.

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At least when I went by, it seemed like there

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were more.

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But, you know, I don't know if officially that was

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the case or it just it just felt felt that way.

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When I went by.

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But but, you know, these ransomware attacks or cyber attacks

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on schools are very common.

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They happen almost every day.

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To be fair, they have decreased a little bit since

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last year on K-12 schools. They've increased on higher ed

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and decreased a little bit, like I believe it's 9%

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on K-12 schools. But a decrease of attacks that are

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happening almost every day is like, you know, So it

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was 25 times and now it's 20.

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Fine, whatever. But it still happens all the time.

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And the risk with schools is that there's a lot

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of people connected to their systems, right?

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They have a lot of vendors. They have a lot

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of employees. The little, you know, a lot of parents,

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everybody is connected.

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And all it takes is one person clicking one bad

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phishing link, you know, and it could bring a system

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down if they're not set up properly. So a few

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things that I would encourage parents to do is actually

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ask their schools like what their response is. If they

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have a plan in place, are they backing things up properly?

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Because actually CISA has a free K-12 cybersecurity guide online.

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It has tools for parents, but it also has tools

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for kids. I mean, for the schools and tells them like,

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this is what you should have in place. This is

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how you should respond. A whole bunch of resources.

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And it's free.

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And they did that because they know a lot of

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schools don't have resources. you know, resources for cybersecurity professionals

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on staff and all of that.

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So they did the work and just handed it off.

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So that's one thing, you know, that's just like high

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level kind of how could the district respond.

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And then on a parent's perspective.

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You know, a lot of times these districts, at least

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what we found locally, is they're not sharing much information

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because they're in a tight spot, right?

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They're still investigating. They still probably don't know everything.

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But also if they are negotiating with a ransomware gang,

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like they probably don't want to show them, hey, this

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is what we know you got or don't have, or,

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you know, they don't want to show all their cards.

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But from a parent's perspective, you're like, well, what is

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going on? What data, if any, was, you know, access

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and you want it all to be, you know, you

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want the answers immediately because it's your kid. So I

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would say like, just know that that is normal kind

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of procedure. And I wouldn't freak out about it because honestly,

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whether it's their school today, their school in college, their pediatric,

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you know, my kid, my eldest had their first data

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breach by four because a healthcare provider got leaked, you know?

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And so, it sucks.

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Because obviously we want to protect that data, but the

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biggest risks are, you know, fraud, child identity theft is

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still very real. So freezing the credit, which for kids

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is a pain because you have to send copies that

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you are an authorized representative. You have to mail the

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forms and it's a pain. And, Also, there's a little

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bit of discomfort of having to put that information in

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the mail. But the risk of something happening to it

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in the mail is much lower than like the fraud risk.

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So you just have to, you know, kind of weigh

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that out.

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And then in general, when something like that happens is,

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you know, just be aware that you could get more

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phishing links, right? Like imagine a school system being down

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and then a parent getting a text from an unknown

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number saying, you know, this is the so-and-so school.

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Make sure you register here for emergency.

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contact whatever and you know you're already in a place

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of confusion where parents don't know the regular things not

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working you know and all it takes is a couple

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people to register to give up you know access to

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put a password and it's a reused password that works

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on their bank you know So I would just be

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aware of any of.

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That kind of stuff.

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Because once one of these gangs or something has your information,

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they often claim it online. So like the criminals know

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this school district is down because of.

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A perfect, perfect target. Now, I don't know that they're

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that coordinated, right? Like some of them are just, but

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they could be. They could be. If it were me,

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I would coordinate. They could be.

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Yeah. So.

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you know, they also might.

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Be missing an opportunity and fingers crossed that, you know,

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but it's something to just be aware of because you

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can imagine it's not that hard for somebody to send

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a text like that and that they get a few

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clicks out of an entire school district.

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So true.

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So I want to kind of go into maybe school

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group chats. I even, the other day, I got an

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invite for like a birthday party. It looked like, you know, whatever,

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the Evite. And it was not from the Evite. And then,

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you know, there's location sharing on apps like Snapchat. Like,

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what do parents need to know about this?

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Yeah. There's also that new one, the Valid app, where

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you like compliment your friends through a link.

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It's weird.

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I can't think of any situation where you need to

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anonymously compliment people.

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I've not heard of that.

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Yeah.

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And what happens is the way they compliment people, right,

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is like, oh, well, if the least attractive one in

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the class is getting all the compliments, right, like it

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becomes or, you know, you have the girl who develops

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early and, you know, it basically becomes another way to...

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screw with people socially. So, I mean, I would say, honestly,

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the best you can to minimize all of these extra

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apps that they're downloading, like, I know that the Snapchat

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is like a common group chat one and, you know,

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eventually they grow into social media, you know, but I

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would limit as much as possible because the other things

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with these apps is you don't know who's behind them, right? Like,

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every additional app is an additional... data breach is an

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additional source of data collection. So even if it's not

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used for bullying or any of the weird social stuff

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in school, which it definitely is, especially in middle school,

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like they are, it is like such a horrible time

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in a young adolescent's life or in our lives too.

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We just think of all the terrible things that people did.

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I think in my school, people used to.

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Line up on both sides of the hallway and just

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bark at anyone that walked in.

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And like, it was just weird. It's like a weird time.

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It's so weird. And it was like to be intimidating,

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you know?

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So anyways, aside from all of that stuff, like additional

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apps means additional risks. So if you just take the

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perception of like, I'm just going to minimize as much

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as possible, we're just going to do, you know, the

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ones that I know are run by, I know the

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company behind these. Like, I know that they're big companies

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that have, you know, big security.

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Stuff in place and all of that. None of the

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new weird ones.

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And then also like when they are on these apps,

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obviously you want to do the two-factor authentication. You want

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to pay attention to their passwords because kids are notoriously

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terrible you know, just doing their dog and their birthday

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or something. And it's happened where, you know, I knew

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a girl in, I think this was middle school in Florida, where,

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you know, her Snapchat got hacked. And she had some

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like kind of risque photos in the camera roll with

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the boyfriend at the time. And like she lost them.

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They weren't posted. They were in her drafts. But still

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that now that's in the hands of somebody else. So

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I would always boost all the security stuff, but then

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also make sure, you know, most importantly.

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Is to talk to your kids about this stuff. Talk

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to your kids about the risk. Talk to your kids

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about like how these things are not private because they

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feel private. They're on our phone.

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We are only texting our friends, but a lot of

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them are not encrypted. It's not private and you can

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lose access at any time. All it takes is a

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friend getting hacked. that then sends you one of those, oh, hey,

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did you see this? This person left you a compliment

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with this link, and then you click on it. And

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now you're hacked to well, once not just clicking on

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the link, but like once you go through the steps,

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you know, and then you lose access to everything. So

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I think one of the biggest, there's a lot of

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risks when we talk about.

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Online stuff, right?

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There's data, there's scams, there's, you know, like the scarier

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stuff with grooming and all of that.

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But the most important.

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Thing, even with the most extreme like sexploitation cases, like,

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you know, you're talking federal government level type cases, the

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most important successful tactic at like mitigating the risks has

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been having a kid who feels comfortable talking to their

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parents when they make mistakes, when they do.

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Things that are shameful. You know, I told you not

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to send the nude. You sent the nude. You know,

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like that really.

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And I have actually spoken recently to people in the

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federal government who oversee these cases. And they're like, yes,

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that is the number one thing you can do. I mean,

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of course, you do all the security prevention and whatever,

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but conversations.

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Is really key. not just with the scam stuff, but

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like the really big stuff too.

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00:16:29.159 --> 00:16:31.840
Yeah. Wow. That's, that's so important. So I, you know,

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as we said, I wanted to have you on for

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like a quick combo. I didn't want to overwhelm parents and,

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you know, go through every single detail and you've given

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us so many great tips already, but if you could

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leave maybe parents with one safety takeaway from everything you teach,

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you know, coming into this new school year, what do

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you think that it would be?

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It would be number one, not to freak out because

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a lot of the parenting instincts are the same, right? Like,

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you know, The things that you would teach kids like

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in the 50s, in the 90s, whatever. A lot of

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the parent stuff is the same.

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It just changes.

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00:17:02.799 --> 00:17:05.470
Like the stranger danger isn't about the man in the

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00:17:05.529 --> 00:17:08.410
van in the parking lot so much anymore. Now it's

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about how do we interact with strangers, which we do

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every single day. But how do we do it appropriately

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online or, you know, whatever it might be.

386
00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:20.019
So I would say your instincts are good and lean

387
00:17:20.059 --> 00:17:23.059
into that. But but also don't like freak out about it.

388
00:17:23.079 --> 00:17:24.740
Right. Like because you are like I want people to

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feel confident that they already know what to do. So

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00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:30.299
I would say do that. Be familiar with what some

391
00:17:30.319 --> 00:17:31.599
of the apps are. You know, if your kid is

392
00:17:31.640 --> 00:17:32.579
coming to you with a new.

393
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App, talk about it. What is it?

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Use it together. You know, look it up online before

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agreeing to it.

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