Cyber safety for ages 13–16

The missions

1. 🔐 Lock Down Your Accounts

   Password managers, passkeys & 2-step verification

   Unique passwords from a password manager, passkeys where offered, and two-step verification on every account that matters.

   What it teaches, and talking points for home

   Credential stuffing and why reuse is dangerous, password managers, passkeys, authenticator-app 2SV, code-sharing scams, account recovery and breach checking.

   • Set up the built-in password manager on their phone together, and turn on two-step verification for their email first: it’s the key to every other account.
   • Check their email at haveibeenpwned.com together and change any passwords that turn up.
   • Agree that sharing logins with friends is off the table, and talk about why.

2. 📡 Scam Radar

   Phishing, smishing, QR codes & impersonation

   Spot the pressure, check through a channel you already trust, and report scams so they get taken down.

   What it teaches, and talking points for home

   Smishing, quishing, family-impersonation scams, fake shops and ticket scams, safe payment methods, verifying through trusted channels and UK reporting routes.

   • Agree a family “safe word” or question to check a message really is from one of you.
   • Show them how to forward a scam text to 7726 and a scam email to report@phishing.gov.uk.
   • Talk about why card payments are safer than bank transfers when buying from strangers online.

3. 💸 Easy Money? It’s a Trap

   Money mules, crypto & “get rich quick” scams

   Letting money pass through your account is a crime, and “guaranteed returns” are a scam.

   What it teaches, and talking points for home

   How money mule recruitment works (DMs, gaming, fake jobs), the consequences including fraud markers, and how to spot crypto and “trading guru” investment scams.

   • Ask whether they’ve seen “easy money” posts at school or online. Many teens have.
   • Make it clear they can always tell you if they’ve been drawn in, and that you’ll help, not punish.
   • Talk about how real jobs pay: through payroll, with payslips, never by moving other people’s money.

4. 🪞 Your Online Reputation

   Digital footprint, location sharing & privacy settings

   What you post can outlive the moment. Control who sees it, what it gives away, and where you are.

   What it teaches, and talking points for home

   Digital footprint and reputation, location sharing and ghost modes, the limits of “disappearing” content, and an annual privacy check-up.

   • Do the privacy check-up together on their main apps: who can see posts, message them, and see their location.
   • Search their name together and talk about what turns up.
   • Ask what they’d like a future employer or college to find, and how they could build that.

5. 🧠 Fact or Fake?

   Algorithms, misinformation, deepfakes & AI

   Feeds are chosen by algorithms, images can be faked, and AI can be confidently wrong. Check before you believe or share.

   What it teaches, and talking points for home

   How recommendation algorithms and filter bubbles work, why misinformation spreads, lateral reading, reverse image search, deepfakes and the limits of AI chatbots.

   • Pick a viral post together and fact-check it using reading sideways and a reverse image search.
   • Ask what their feed shows them most, and why they think the app picked it.
   • Agree some ground rules for using AI chatbots for homework.

6. 🎭 Who’s Pulling the Strings?

   Persuasive design, grooming signs & online radicalisation

   Apps are designed to hook you, and some people online are trying to pull you in. Notice the pattern, keep your real-life people close.

   What it teaches, and talking points for home

   How persuasive design works, the common pattern of grooming and online radicalisation (flattery, isolation, secrecy, us-versus-them), and where young people can get help. Kept at the level of patterns, not scripts.

   • Talk about who they chat with online that they haven’t met in person, without judgement.
   • Look at screen-time settings together and let them choose their own limits.
   • If you’re worried about radicalisation, talk to the school’s safeguarding lead, or see actearly.uk for advice.

7. 👾 Hacker: Hero or Criminal?

   The Computer Misuse Act & cyber careers

   Hacking without permission is a crime, even “just for a laugh”. With permission, the same skills lead to a great career.

   What it teaches, and talking points for home

   The Computer Misuse Act in plain terms, common teen offences (account access, booters, cracked accounts), consequences, and legal routes into cyber security.

   • If they’re into tech, look at CTF competitions and the National Crime Agency’s Cyber Choices programme together.
   • Talk about the difference between curiosity and permission.
   • Celebrate the skills: the cyber security industry needs people like them.

8. 👑 Own Your Data

   UK GDPR rights, consent, cookies & app permissions

   At 13 you give consent yourself, so use your rights: see what’s held, delete what you shared as a child, and say no to tracking.

   What it teaches, and talking points for home

   Consent at 13 under UK GDPR, cookie banners, app permissions, subject access requests, the right to erasure, the Children’s Code and the ICO.

   • Go through app permissions on their phone together and remove what isn’t needed.
   • Try a subject access request together to an app they use a lot. It’s eye-opening.
   • Practise finding “Reject all” on cookie banners.

9. 🛠️ Secure Your Setup

   Updates, Wi-Fi, nearby sharing, lost phones & backups

   Updated, locked, backed up and findable. Plus smart habits for public Wi-Fi and sharing nearby.

   What it teaches, and talking points for home

   Patching, screen locks, find-my-device, backups, nearby-sharing settings, public Wi-Fi and evil twin hotspots, and the risks of cracked apps and mods.

   • Check automatic updates, screen lock and find-my-device on their devices together.
   • Set nearby sharing to contacts only.
   • Make sure photos are backed up, and test that the backup actually works.

10. 🖥️ Shared Screens & Warning Signs

    Shoulder surfing, signing out everywhere, browser & certificate warnings, anti-malware

    Beat shoulder surfers, leave no account logged in, read browser warnings properly, and keep anti-malware scanning.

    What it teaches, and talking points for home

    Shoulder surfing and lock-screen previews, private windows and signing out on shared computers, checking signed-in devices, dangerous-site and certificate warnings versus scareware, and a sensible anti-malware routine.

    • Go through the “signed-in devices” list in your teen’s main accounts together, and sign out anything old.
    • Check lock-screen notification previews are hidden on their phone.
    • Make sure the family computer’s built-in security has real-time protection on and a daily scheduled scan, and agree that nobody turns it off to install a mod or cracked game.

11. 🏆 Level 3 Challenge

    Putting it all together

    Real-life scenarios from every mission, solved with Stop, Check, Tell.

    What it teaches, and talking points for home

    Stop, Check, Tell applied to mixed teen scenarios: account takeover, money mules, pressure for photos and secrecy, deepfakes and illegal hacking.

    • Ask them which mission surprised them most.
    • Ask them to teach you one thing, such as setting up a passkey or spotting a scam text.
    • Celebrate the Level 3 certificate.

Teachers: every mission has a free printable lesson sheet on the For teachers page.

▶ Start Cyber Level 3