Are your kids safe online? From social media oversharing to gaming chats and school apps, today's children are building a digital footprint from the day they're born. In this episode of Screen Less Play More, Cynthia Dvorak sits down with cybersecurity expert Chad Rychlewski of Cybersecurity Parents to uncover the biggest mistakes parents make—and how to fix them.

Learn practical tips for:

Protecting your child's digital footprint from birth onward
Avoiding common cybersecurity pitfalls in social media, apps, and online games
Freezing your child's credit to prevent identity theft
Teaching kids safe habits around browsers, passwords, and online privacy
Spotting signs of cyberbullying, doxxing, and online scams

Chad shares his experience guiding families through real-world cybersecurity challenges, plus step-by-step advice from his book Cybersecurity Parents: Super Cyber Smart Parenting for the Digital Age. Whether your child is in preschool or heading off to college, this episode is packed with actionable strategies every parent needs.

Episode takeaways:

Parents often overshare personal details about their children online.
Freezing a child's credit can prevent identity theft.
Active footprints are created by what we post online.
Passive footprints include metadata and tracking data.
Regular conversations about online safety are essential.
Educational technology can track children's data without their knowledge.
Doxxing involves maliciously sharing someone's private information.
Cyberbullying can occur in group chats and online games.
Using safe browsing modes can protect personal information. Don't use Google!
Parents should regularly check privacy settings on apps.

More about Screen Less Play More, the best parenting podcast about play and tech at:

https://screenlessplaymore.com/

https://substack.com/@screenlessplaymore?utm_source=user-menu

Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@ScreenLessPlayMore

📚 Find the book and more resources at cybersecurityparents.com 🌐 Learn more about the best parenting podcast, Screen Less Play More at screenlessplaymore.com

Protect your kids online—listen, learn, and start building safer digital habits today!

Welcome to the Screen Less Play More podcast — the best parenting podcast for raising balanced, confident kids in the digital age by reducing screen time, managing gaming and social media, and restoring play-based childhoods.

Hosted by Cynthia Dvorak of ScreenLessPlayMore.com, we share expert advice and research-backed strategies to help parents create healthy screen habits, set realistic tech boundaries, and build stronger family connection without constant monitoring or power struggles. Each episode gives you practical tools for reducing screen time battles, ensuring online safety for kids, and age-appropriate digital limits. We discuss if there is such thing as healthy screen time, and what are some good guidelines for screen time by age. It's the podcast for moms and the podcast for dads who care about keeping kids balanced and brilliant!

But it's not all about screens! Screen Less Play More is also about the benefits of free play, outdoor play, and imaginative play so your children can thrive both online and offline. Look no further for executive tech strategies, research-backed tools, ideas for screen free entertainment, and screen free activites for kids from tiny to teenager. We are big on play, especially risky play, outdoor play, and the friluftsliv outdoor lifestyle.

Through interviews with experts, educators, and authors, we aim to make you more intentional parents, mindful parents, and happy parents! Whether you're into calm parenting, gentle parenting, or FAFO parenting- we have advice that will guide your decisions around digital technology and play based learning (and play just for the sake of play!)

What's the best parenting podcast about play and screens? Check out the top 6 episodes from 2025 of Screen Less Play More : https://screenlessplaymore.com/top-rated-parenting-podcast-episodes-of-the-year-our-most-listened-most-loved-conversations/

Thanks for listening! If you click "follow" you'll make sure to never miss an episode!