Can Your Kid Use a VPN?
VPNs are becoming more and more popular – to the point where even kids and teens are using them nowadays. If you heard your child talking about VPNs recently, you might be a bit worried. Are those online tools safe for them to use, after all?
Well, the good news is that yes, they are safe to use. In fact, all kids should use a VPN when they use the Internet. We’ll tell you why in this article.
Here’s Why You Should Let Your Kid Use a VPN
We’re going to focus on the benefits they get mostly. But don’t worry – you as a parent will definitely benefit from these perks too:
VPNs Keep Them Safe Online
When your kids use the Internet, they’re not always safe. They might use public WiFi to go online because they need to post a meme ASAP. It sounds funny when we say it, but it can get dark really fast – a hacker could be eavesdropping on their unencrypted traffic to steal their login credentials. If they’re successful, they’ll get access to their email and social media accounts (which means they could steal money from them or commit identity theft).
What’s more, hackers could set up their own fake WiFi networks. They name them after legitimate networks to trick your kids into connecting to them. Once they do, the hackers can spy on their traffic and redirect their connections to phishing sites with MITM attacks.
Well, using a VPN will keep your families’ data private by encrypting your kids’ online traffic. The VPN makes it completely unreadable – not even cybercriminals on fake WiFi can crack it!
VPNs Secure Their P2P Traffic
Kids download torrents – no matter how many times you tell them it’s against the law or bad. Instead of having them doing that behind your back and getting you in trouble with your ISP, it’s better to be proactive.
Your ISP won’t know that devices on your network are accessing torrent trackers or downloading torrents. If they use a VPN that supports P2P traffic, it will hide their torrenting activities. What’s more, copyright trolls won’t be able to collect your kids’ IP addresses in the torrent swarm (so they won’t be able to scam them out of money by using the IPs to threaten them).
VPNs Help Them Game Better
VPNs make gaming really fun. They help your kids play together with their friends from other countries by letting them bypass geo-blocks.
What’s more, a VPN keeps your kids safe from unfair IP blocks, DDoS attacks, swatting (which can actually be lethal), and cyberstalking (nobody can track their movements with their IPs).
VPNs Lets Them Unblock Geo-Restricted Content
With a VPN, your kids (and, why not, the whole family) can unblock their favorite TV shows and movies on sites like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+. The VPN hides their geo-location, so sites can’t geo-block their access anymore.
All in all that makes the Internet more pleasant for them and your whole family.
VPNs Prevent Bandwidth Throttling
By encrypting online traffic, VPNs stop your ISP from slowing your speeds when your network uses too much data.
And let’s face it – it’s straightforward to consume a lot of data when your kids are gaming or streaming for hours on end. Just watching an hour of HD videos on Netflix will eat up around 3 GB of data!
Why You Should Buy the VPN Instead of Letting Your Kids Do It
We know, we know – this is another unnecessary expense. We can already hear many of you groaning in unison about having to pay for yet another monthly subscription.
But hear us out – sure, you can let your kids pay for the VPN using their allowance. That might teach them an important life lesson about handling your finances.
That’s a noble intention. But here’s the problem – your kids will probably want to use a free VPN so that they don’t have to pay for it with their own money. Or they might try to find cracked versions of paid VPNs.
If you pay for the VPN, though, they won’t be tempted to do that. Why would they? They’ve got all the premium features they need for free anyway (since they don’t need to pay anything).
If you’re not sure why free or cracked VPNs are a bad idea, here’s a quick look at them:
Why Free VPNs Are Bad
Free VPNs are very risky to use and just not worth it. Instead of protecting your kids’ privacy, they’ll only endanger it. Free VPNs often log user data and sell it to advertisers. If your kids use a peer-to-peer free VPN, it could even sell their bandwidth, turning their devices into botnets (the kinds hackers use).
What’s more, if you plan on using the VPN too, you’ll be annoyed. Free VPNs can’t unblock most streaming sites, have prolonged speeds, and use bandwidth caps (like 2 GB per month).
Why Cracked VPNs Are Bad
Cracked VPNs are free versions of paid VPNs that you can download from different hosting sites and torrent trackers. The idea is that if you download a cracked VPN, you can use the paid VPN’s apps as if you were a paying user.
But that’s rarely what happens. In reality, most cracked VPNs are malware-infected files. If your kids interact with them, they’ll compromise their devices and the entire family WiFi network.
And even if they do manage to download a cracked VPN that works, it will likely be an outdated app. It won’t work well, which will result in leaked IPs and data.
What to Keep in Mind When Buying a VPN
If you’re getting a VPN for your kids and you want to use it as well, consider getting one that has unlimited parallel connections. That way, you don’t have to limit the VPN usage to a few devices or keep reminding your kids to log out of the devices they’re not using.
Surfshark is a perfect VPN that offers unlimited parallel connections. Its prices are also meager if you get a long-term plan. Plus, it has good security, fast speeds, and easy-to-use apps for all platforms.
Do Your Kids Use VPNs?
If yes, what do they use them for? Also, which VPNs do they (and your whole family) use? Would you please tell us about your experience in the comments?
