Family Safety Guide: 12 Ways to Protect Your Family Online and Offline

When we think about family safety, most of us picture door locks, the walk to school or traffic. Yet a large share of the risks a family faces today arrive through a phone screen: a stranger messaging a child inside a game, a fake "police officer" calling an elderly relative, a link in a fake parcel text, or a social media account being taken over.

The good news: most of these risks can be reduced considerably with a few simple habits and the right tools. The bad news: no app and no filter is enough on its own. The foundation of family safety is communication, clear rules and regular review. Technology strengthens that foundation; it does not replace it.

Use the 12 steps below as a checklist. You do not have to do them all in one day; tackling one item a week will noticeably change your family's level of safety within a few months.

1. Talk as a family: safety is not a list of bans

When safety rules are dictated from the top down, children and teenagers in particular look for ways around them. When rules are discussed together, people own them.

Try a short, 20–30 minute "family safety chat" once a month. The agenda can be simple:

• Did anything online or outside bother us this month?
• Is there a rule on our phones, games or apps that we want to change?
• Has anyone suspicious contacted our older relatives recently?

The most important rule: the first reaction to a problem must not be punishment. If a child believes their phone will be taken away when they report something odd, they will not tell you next time. Listen first, say thank you, then look for a solution together.

2. Make a family emergency plan

In an earthquake, a fire, a missing child or a relative suddenly taken to hospital, what reduces panic is a plan you talked through in advance. At a minimum it should include:

• At least one phone number that everyone in the family knows by heart
• One meeting point near home and one outside the neighbourhood
• A "contact person" who lives in another city and whom everyone will update
• Who is allowed to pick the children up from school
• A medication list and doctor details for relatives who take regular medicine

For a detailed template, see our family emergency plan for earthquakes and disasters.

3. Set up location sharing transparently and with consent

Location sharing within a family is a great source of peace of mind when it is set up well: you do not need to keep calling to know that your child reached school or that your elderly mother got home. Set up badly, it becomes a surveillance tool that damages trust.

What to watch for:

• Do not track anyone secretly. Monitoring an adult family member's location without their knowledge is unethical and, in many countries, unlawful.
• Explain to children what is shared. Saying "Only we can see your location, and we use it to know you arrived at school" is far healthier than tracking them silently.
• Use event-based alerts instead of constant watching. Arrival and departure notifications for home, school or a club are less tiring and less intrusive than checking the map every five minutes.

Our in-depth family location sharing guide helps you find that balance.

4. Set up your child's first phone together, step by step

Giving a child a phone is like handing them the keys to a city: there are wonderful places in it, and dark alleys too. A first phone should not be taken out of the box and handed over; it should be set up together and gradually.

The basic steps:

1. Set it up with a child account (system tools such as Google Family Link or Apple Family Sharing).
2. Turn on age-appropriate content limits and purchase approval in the app store.
3. Agree on screen time, school-hours and bedtime rules together.
4. Talk about which apps are installed and why.
5. Start with stricter rules in the first weeks and relax them as trust grows.

For all the details, see our guide to a child's first phone.

5. Put balanced limits on screen time

The problem is not the screen itself but the time it steals from sleep, movement, face-to-face relationships and schoolwork. So "which hours, and for what" matters as much as "how many hours a day".

A few practical principles:

• Screens go off at least an hour before bed, and phones charge outside the bedroom.
• No phones at the dinner table (adults included).
• Entertainment apps are off during school hours and homework.
• Weekend rules can differ from weekdays; what matters is that everyone knows them in advance.

For age-based recommendations and rules that work in practice, read our article on screen time for kids.

6. Build a family "stop and verify" reflex against scams

A scammer's strongest weapons are urgency and fear: "Your account is linked to a criminal investigation", "Your parcel is held at customs, pay now", "Mum, I'm in trouble, I need money right away". Every one of these scripts tries to make you act without thinking.

Three golden rules everyone in the family should know:

• The police, prosecutors and bank staff never ask you over the phone for money, passwords or SMS verification codes.
• Instead of tapping a link you received, open the organisation's official app or website yourself.
• When in doubt, hang up and call the organisation yourself on a number you know is genuine.

We have two detailed guides on this: fake police phone scams and SMS and WhatsApp scams.

7. Agree on a "family password"

Now that AI voice cloning is widespread, calls imitating a relative's voice are no longer science fiction. The simplest and most effective defence is a family password that you agree on together and that only you know.

If someone calls saying "It's me, I'm in trouble, send money now", you ask for the password. If they do not know it or change the subject, hang up and call your relative on the number you know. Read more in our article on AI voice cloning scams and the family password.

8. Support older relatives while respecting their independence

Elderly parents are often targeted by scammers and are also at risk of falls, getting lost or sudden health problems. At the same time they value their independence highly; a "we are going to track you" approach usually backfires.

What works is the language of support, not control:

• Agree on a short daily "I'm OK" signal (a message or a one-tap notification).
• Simplify their phone: large text, few apps, a speed-dial list.
• Talk through together how to handle calls from unknown numbers.

For more, see our guide to elderly parent safety.

9. Strengthen account security as a family

A hijacked email account can lead, in a chain, to hijacked social media, banking and cloud photos. Agree on these basic standards in your family:

• A different, long password for every account, and a password manager
• Two-step verification wherever possible (ideally an authenticator app or a passkey)
• A screen lock on every phone and an up-to-date operating system
• Never sharing an SMS verification code with anyone, not even within the family

For a step-by-step walkthrough, read our article on strong passwords and two-step verification.

10. Talk about online threats in an age-appropriate way

Cyberbullying, strangers getting close to children in game chats, sexual blackmail… These are hard topics for parents to raise, but children encounter these risks much earlier than most people think.

A few tips that make the conversation easier:

• Start from a news story or a scene in a series: "What do you think that child should have done?"
• Tell your child clearly that they can always come to you and that you will not be angry.
• Teach early that "an adult who asks you to keep a secret does not mean well".

Our guides on cyberbullying, online grooming and sextortion can show you the way.

11. Do not forget physical safety

While focusing on digital risks, basic physical safety measures can slip through the cracks:

• Keep a smoke detector and a fire extinguisher at home, and make sure everyone knows how to use them.
• Fix heavy furniture to the wall (vital in earthquake zones).
• Keep medicines, cleaning products and sharp tools out of reach of young children.
• Let children walk the route to school with an adult first, then gradually on their own. Our article on a safe route to school can help.

12. Choose the right technology and review it regularly

Family safety apps are tools that support the habits above. When choosing one, ask yourself:

• What does it collect, and what does it not? How long is sensitive data such as location, messages or browsing history kept?
• Is it transparent? Can the person being looked after see what is shared?
• Does it actually do what you need? More features do not always mean more safety.
• Is it honest about its limits on Android and iPhone?

We designed Koriva on exactly these principles: location sharing, safe zone alerts, protection against scam numbers and phishing links, screen time rules, a one-tap "I'm OK" for older relatives and an emergency button, in one app. We state clearly how each feature works on each type of phone, and live location is deleted automatically after 24 hours. To learn more, read our article on what data Koriva does not collect.

Whatever tool you choose, review the settings as a family every three months: rules should loosen as children grow, and the kind of support should change as older relatives' needs change.

Summary: 5 steps you can start this week

1. Make sure everyone in the family knows at least one relative's number by heart.
2. Agree on a family password.
3. Have the "the police and the bank never ask for money on the phone" conversation with older relatives.
4. Turn on two-step verification for your own email account.
5. Go through the apps on your child's phone together.

Safety is not a destination; it is a journey. Small but regular steps protect more than the most expensive measures.