Bitcoin Forum

After reading some helpful and wonderful post about the need to introduce young children to Bitcoin early, I started teaching my 11, 9 and 7 years old children Bitcoin education. I was teaching them about the operations of Bitcoin but I observed that they were always fascinated when I discuss wallets. Immediately they saw the worth of the Bitcoin I own in Dollars they crammed the value. Once they observed that Bitcoin has appreciated and the Dollar worth have increased, they would celebrate and hug themselves because daddy have made more money.

After few days, my children told me how they had informed their friends that I own Bitcoin and have “plenty dollars”. And my children advised these friends to tell their parents so that they can earn dollars.
Immediately I became concerned and scared. In my country the US dollar is highly valued and anyone that owns One Bitcoin is a Millionaire. Who are the parents or relative of these my children’s friends? Some might be criminals. I was scared because I can become a target of fraudsters, Kidnappers and armed robbery because of my children’s actions. Immediately I stopped the Bitcoin class and started teaching them cyber safety and general financial safety education.

Fraudsters are motivated by money and look for easiest possible ways to get vital information and children are very easy target for identity theft and other cyber and non-cyber crime. Younger children don’t fully understand security and are naïve to the need for security because they don’t necessarily comprehend the extent of online and offline risks.  They might freely give out credentials like keys, usernames and passwords. Last year more than  1.25 million children  (https://www.thestreet.com/personal-finance/child-fraud-is-on-the-rise-how-to-protect-your-kids)in the US fell victim to cyber crime costing the families an average of more than $1.100 per attack.

Hence before we teach Bitcoin education, our children must be grounded in security education. As parent we should never share our keys, passwords or username with our children. I know children have a way of discovering this sensitive information such as passwords, but we must keep them secret or constantly change them. We must teach our children never to inform anyone about our financial investments or transactions. They must not make online purchases without our permission or guidance. Our children must know the dangers of clicking random links, sending or receiving suspicious emails, sharing personal information with friends and receiving credit cards. Teach them how to use nicknames, keep their online pictures generic, never share personal images and should always use family device or computer fully regulated by parents.

Children should have a carefree childhood, without any burdens going in the direction of something like Bitcoin. Not only is it a security risk as you learned from your example, but it is illogical for children to be introduced to something so early when by all measures they are far from legally owning or trading such assets.

Despite the fact that some people persistently push the idea that children should be educated about how the online world works in the very early stages, and I am thinking primarily of computer and smartphone manufacturers who just want to sell as many devices as possible - children should be kept away from such things at least until they are 12 or more years old.

If someone thinks it's normal for a 7-year-old to spend hours playing on the computer or watching TV and then be surprised that his child turns into a little zombie, don't be surprised when things go downhill.

https://www.wgu.edu/blog/impact-technology-kids-today-tomorrow1910.html

It's weird because I definitely agree, but right now the worlds children are basically being programmed on how to be a good worker, and understand the very basics of money. This is from a young age too. So, I definitely agree that Bitcoin shouldn't be pushed onto kids too early, same as Cyber Security. At the end of the day, they're kids, and should be doing kids things like playing around in the park, and playing sport. All that kinds of things. Learning social skills being probably one of the most important. Too many people these days are struggling with the social aspects of life.

Bitcoin could be introduced as a optional class in their teens, just like teens are given the choice on what subjects they want to study, Bitcoin could be one of them or cryptocurrencies as a more broader approach. Same as Cyber Security. If I was offered a chance to study Cyber Security instead of geography, you can bet I wouldn't even know where Scotland was, because that would be right up my alley.

It is a nice move but there are stages of education. There are some sensitive information that should be withheld while introducing school aged children to monetary system. They get exited too easily about new things and will always want to boast around their friends (a thing of pride for them) i cases like this they can get cartoon like concept about Bitcoin learning a broad concept in a fun way without really knowing how much knowledge they have been able to grasp.

It's not weird letting your kids know about bitcoin at an early school age range but making them go through the stress of conversion and monetary evaluation might deprive them of their childhood fun. Instead a Bitcoin cartoon or animation can be used instead to pass the information in a fun way

This present time Carrie's many digital functions, and it's good from my perspective for both Bitcoin illiterate and bitcoin lord's to pass the knowledge of cryptocurrency and especially bitcoin to their offsprings, because it's obvious that bitcoin is going to the future of tomorrow and anyone who don't know buoyantly about it will cliches for the elements of minority.

You can't rely on kids to not blabber your secrets to other kids or adults. Kids really love to show off, more than adults, because they don't see the downsides of it, like in your scenario of rumors of your wealth spreading beyond your control and reaching criminals. So teaching very young children about Bitcoin is not a good idea if you plan to keep the fact that you own Bitcoin a secret from everyone.

A few years ago I blundered and told my parents about Bitcoin. You can trust your parents, they are responsible adults, right? Wrong, they told my grandma, and grandma told everyone. Now a lot of people ask me how my Bitcoin is doing, how many I own and basically think that I'm rich and they are entitled to get money from me. And this is adults, not kids.

I agree. We put too much pressure on our children, should we start teaching our kids how to trade stocks and buy company shares. Bitcoin is a complicated subject for a 10 year old. We, bitcoin enthusiasts sometimes go extra mile to increase bitcoin awareness to those around us.

Saying from how it is down here in Africa, most parents, if they have the chance to teach them kid's about Bitcoin, Programming language, and Cyber security will do with all they have.
The ends it's Fvcked that, we can't rely much on the government, I have come to full agreement that kids should be kids,have fun during those stages of their life's and shouldn't be introduced to toxic topics that will be too cumbersome to understand and assimilate.
I'd love too teach my younger nephew about Bitcoin when he turns 12, the least I can do now to arouse him into Crypto is to turn the alphabet in Crypto term's and let him recite it day after day. Eg

A- Alternative Coin's
B-- Bitcoin
C- Coins
D- Dip
Etc.  Stuff's like this won't be a bad idea, and also reading poems and reading Bitcoin comic's for kids.

I think your nephew is too old to be reciting ABCs, don’t you think? Maybe you should find a subtle way to do it maybe during dinner at the dining table you could raise a discussion about bitcoin. If your family do not like the topic you should let them be. Like I said before, we try too hard to connect Bitcoin to our personal lives and those close to us.

Not too Old, in K-G already reciting other things. I'll just bring this up twice in a week though.
I started kicking soccer with him already, I'm I pushing that too far ? No! So I can still do same with him by reading and reciting that.
I'm not being Bitcoin bias or cynical. It's my own nephew though  ::) 8)

It's actually amazing that children as young as 10 could in fact learn the basics of digital and cyber security without directly teaching them. Their high level of direct exposure to the digital world teaches them that. They have computer subjects at school. They use advanced technologies every hour of the day. Their Roblox experience, for example, could teach them hacking and theft 101. Moreover, their vast Facebook experience could make them very much aware of dummy accounts and posers and scams and phishing and whatnot.

Sometimes, there is this misconception, which is probably brought by generation gap, which makes older people assume that young children need to be thoroughly lectured on the security implications of the digital age when in fact these youngsters are more advanced than them and that safe exploration on social media and the internet is already second nature to them.

But it was probably at a time when not everyone could even have a computer, let alone the Internet. Then you could get most of your knowledge at school, from your parents or by reading books - while today you simply ask the search engine and get the results presented.

Today’s children are therefore more focused on some other things than to acquire some knowledge, because knowledge is always available online. I read somewhere that this has the effect of reducing the percentage of the brain we actively use, which would mean that technology is starting to limit us in some way when it comes to cognitive abilities - computers think, and we are becoming less and less intelligent.

That's true, most knowledge now is at the end of your fingertips. I'm not exactly against the evolution we've taken. Someone might be less intelligent because of it, but they have anything, and everything at their fingertips, so are only seconds away from gaining the necessary information to carry out whatever they need to do. They should probably teach how to search properly though.

However, that obviously changes when you come to more complex jobs or tasks. You wouldn't want a surgeon to not have any idea, and just uses Google. I mean, they do read a ton of books obvbiously as a reference point since storing all that information is futile, but you'd want them to have some sort of baseline ability.

Cybersecurity is becoming more relevant as a skill to learn though. You can't just learn security over night, there's too much complexity to it.

Zlantann you are making sense, I think how to protect a wallet,  securing the wallet and bitcoin,  to avoid scammers & fraudsters are the most important things children needs to know first about bitcoin education and not how to trade or invest.  If children are taught how to invest and know nothing how to protect wallet and scammers,  they will be a prey to scammers.

Man, you obviously have very brilliant kids. A seven-year-old child listens with interest to what bitcoin is. I immediately had a comparison with my son. For the most part, he doesn't care. Children at this age should not be concerned about money and, in general, the value of things. Of course, they should be neat and thrifty, but regularly checking the plus or minus in the parent's wallet, in my opinion, is nonsense.

Moreover, there is a good expression: "My tongue, my enemy!"

You yourself force children to brag to their peers, but you don’t think that your own children can later fall under the wrath of children who do not have such a successful dad and suffer from your "good" teachings.

All in due time, don't let the kids grow up sooner than they should be. Allow them to have a childhood so that they will grow up to be a healthy, self-confident person rather than a neurotic who is constantly preoccupied with money.

My kids are a bit younger, but I already teach them about privacy. That's more relevant and more age appropriate than cyber security. They use a fake name as email address (to register their tablet/phone), and at home we use a code word for Bitcoin, so they don't mention it at school. Code words also work for sex, so they don't know what we're talking about.
When they're a bit older, I'll tell them about magic internet money. Until then, their allowance is in euro. A piggy bank is much easier to understand.

Well done OP. I want to believe that you are not mounting any pressure on your kids to learn Bitcoin. Kids should be allowed to enjoy their childhood. Childhood is very precious. It is a time when the brain is evolving. They should be allowed to grow and develop at their own pace. I think your goal as a parent is to create a condusive environment to help your kids find out what they like, what they are good at. Enroll them in different classes where they learn piano, swimming class, dance class, crypto class. Create the opportunity for them to try and experiment with different things. As a parent don't force your ideas on them or mount any pressure on them to  learn crypto, programming etc. Let them grow and get drawn naturally to whatever  interests

Security education should be also for offline reasons as well as online reasons. The world is a wicked place and the innocence of children can be taken advantage of. As you educate you children about cyber criminals and security, they should also be made aware of offline threats in the form of friendly faces as well because some online threat may result from offline carelessness. Children should be thought to trust less and be careful of people they trust with their digital device or device of their parents if entrusted in their care even for a while.

That ricocheted back at you pretty quick, sometimes this is actually almost inevitable, whether you told your children about Bitcoin or not, whenever you are living a good life and taking very good care of your family, the little kids tend to talk to their friends about it in school, about how their dad did X and Y for them, so if you did mention Bitcoin to them, chances are very high they would spill the bean. Well the case of Bitcoin is only somewhat different because of the misconception people have when they see a Bitcoin speculator, hodler or user, the immediate thought is that the person is rich and who knows what that could lead to.

Having said that, i have the advantage of learning from all you guys about the best action to take on this matter as i am yet to have kids, i will very soon anyway. But for now i think the con of introducing kids to Bitcoin pretty early outweighs the pro, so i might just teach them about other things and leave Bitcoin for last.

Yep, security and privacy issues both online and offline must be taught simultaneously. why, as in the OP's case, his child told a friend, because he thought it would be safe, maybe he don't know if this action had exposed his father's privacy. Providing education about privacy and security in real life, needs to be prioritized, because this involves close people. then we can teach about cyber security later. Personally, I will choose to teach about privacy and security in the real world first, because telling someone close will be more dangerous for our lives, the reason is, we cannot understand whether it is that people who know can keep this secret or not. whereas in the cyber world, sometimes this can be prevented with the help by Anti Virus for program, and stay away with share our asset value in social media.

I agree, I think Security and Cyber Security are needed prior to
learning about Bitcoin. They learn about computers at school at
a very early age I think in todays world its important for parents
to suppliment the teachings from school, we do it with other topics.

Where I am kids as young as 13 have smartphones and carry them
always, parents see it as a security feature for their kids so yea kids
are exposed to being online from an early age, we made sure our
youngster had the information we had when she got her first smartphone,
but we made sure it wasnt a lecture.

I would rather tell them about security than leaving it up to someone else
they know or not know.

Little wonder how Google became our friend. Before you even get to think, you reference Google for whatever and there is little we could do about it. It seems an easier way to live and most of us consider it being smart. It's the age and so, we tend to flow along with it.
At Tim's I become very surprise and Furious at what some of the extremely rich forks and celebrities get for them kids and I mean toddlers at that. You get to see them with some highly suffisticated devices and I wonder if it's just to make headlines on social media's as its there nature or its actually gifted them. In one instance, you've already built a dependency between that child and the device and it goes on all through life. Making the next generation tech genius at the expense of our cognitive ability.

I won't disagree with the intention to educate them early but I think we shouldn't have to urge them to do this but instead, give them time to take responsibility when they are ready enough to handle things like this. Because for me, I'd rather make them enjoy themselves playing around and their childhood days as these things about security and cyber education is a serious matter which is highly recommended for young adults at least, not these kids.

Honestly, we are putting more pressure on them. 

I believe teaching an 11 ,9 and 7 year old kids bitcoin education is totally wrong ,it will distract them from school and make them exposed to money too early,they will become too money oriented & prioritise it alot, there love for money will grow over schooling because they wont have value for schooling since they can make money without even finishing school,they wont see need to be educated since bitcoin can sort their needs.
Parenting has failed due to our inability to think before acting.

there must be strict supervision both online and offline. because evil can come from anywhere. Some of the security that must be applied to online is to monitor children's devices and parents' devices must have special access. scammers target them and become easy targets to manipulate.
Children's carelessness about online safety also causes problems in offline safety. Make sure children are properly educated about safety that will protect themselves and those around them.

Good point OP, but I would stress that school education on all things cyber (to use that general term) is an imperative, as well as general economic education (I know former socialist countries had that but also USA through some of their programs). The kids are allready behind the times so it's high time for some educational shifts.

I'd find it necessary as we know that our kids have been already exposed to social media and online activities. It was very important to have at least some knowledge about cyber security in order to protect themselves. But what we need is gradual teaching and of course, some limitations such as putting stress on their mind make it useless and probably it never works.

And maybe having this as a part of the discussion in school helps them to understand and give more importance to why it is a need.

This is exactly a valuable lesson for me personally.
From this story, I can take:
- Teaching children as their age acceptance, with their age possibility to understand. No need to force us to learn and accept more about what we want to teach
- Teaching children about cryptocurrency especially Bitcoin is possible and we can start it earlier. But there is a crucial note "Don't show them how much we have in the wallets or exchanges". Just teach them about crypto generally.
- Children still don't know about cyber security, criminals, and also other emotional controls very well, so, we as parents also need to be careful when teaching them about something, we should teach them about it, step by step.

Base on the increasing cyber crime in recent days ,it's very much important that we take cyber security education seriously this days and therefore educate or reducate our Children on how to protect their theirselves interms of privacy and Data when exposed to internet and even before teaching about finances and getting them involve in any form of online transaction and digital currencies like Bitcoin.

There is always a need to tech our children about those things they ought to know about. Bitcoin is a digital currency and also an assets that can yield good profits when hold for a long period of time. I think there is need to teach our children about the next evolution of money which is the digital currency. We shouldn't keep the knowledge away from children because it can help them in a long way to get aquatinted to the next evolution of money.

Cyber security is a mandatory step parents need to take to avoid children being a juvenile deliquescency. Wrong influence had made many children to fall astray because of lack of cyber security education that could draw them to a wrong path. There is high need for the government to include optimum cyber security education  to students' corriculum.

Your kids are too young to understand the importance of keeping family matters private. You experienced it yourself when they started talking about how wealthy their father is. At a young age, they are still too innocent, naïve, and honest. You can slowly introduce them to Bitcoin, but it's not necessary for them to see and know how much you have in your portfolio. If they don't know, they can't brag to their friends. And even if they brag, they have only seen a small part of your stash. Something not worth to worry about. I would even go as far as creating a separate wallet with just a little bit of BTC that you can use for your education.   

The bigger lesson here is teaching them that things that concern their family shouldn't be discussed with the outside world. It's better if they disclose less information than too much.

Nice intention but wrong move. But of course, that's what you should expect from children. In their innocence, they could wreck havoc. Take for instance how they spread the message, thinking they're doing their daddy good; not knowing that could even lead to someone harming you their dad. Next time, whether with your children or those you teach, try using a wallet with a few dollar or no dollar in it at all. You can even blank the amount in the wallet from the settings. That feature is under "Hide Balances". It does no one no good to expose oneself, wittingly or unwittingly. There's a reason people don't like telling others how much they earn. It's a precaution for safety.

I have a doubt about 7 years old to 10 years old cause we all know  these kids are too young to enter or listen the discussion about crypto or in Bitcoin itself. Like in my country this ages mentioned  are too young to teach,  because all they have in mind set to play and have fun with their friends maybe not all  but the majority of any children in my country are not interested about  crypto.
Maybe in other countries their children are good and start learning Bitcoin in the earliest age.

Just by reading the post title I kind of understood what would have had happened and I guessed it right.
You are doing a good thing by teaching your children what bitcoin is but at the same time it is absolutely necessary to shine some light on privacy and security too.
I think you should teach your children about security by playing some kind of games with them where the moral of the story would be how to avoid from being scammed/robbed.
This would be a great eye opener for them and they will remember it for life time.
You can then gradually convert those security incidents into cyber security and then relate it to bitcoin.
This thread is an eye opener for those who are thinking to teach their children about crypto.

In addition to the excellent points stated by OP, I think it is also noteworthy to mention and to add that teaching children how to learn the value of money can be a crucial aspect towards their appreciation in investing. If children know how to value their resources, then they would slowly develop this kind of mentality where they will conserve their resources and money.

I remember that my parents used to tell me that before I can purchase something or ask, I should definitely work hard for something that I want. Whether it be toys or anything, I should always do something in return (e.g. clean my bed, etc.).

Children are the same all over the world. There's something called tabula rasa in every human when they're born. What makes the difference is what type of impressions parents want to make on them. Children can learn stuff we ordinarily wouldn't expect them to. For instance, I've seen kids who start reading real books at four years old. For me, I've developed that mindset of making my kids learn trading once they get to age 14 and that should be in their first year at senior secondary class. I want them to believe in themselves and in what they can achieve by themselves and not the regular go to school, obtain a certificate and then go job hunting. They will be the jobs themselves.

This generation is really advanced compared to our times. Parents are teaching their kids a lot of things, early on. While this may be a good practice rate, it is also quite challenging as they grow they will feel the competition. While you teach them about bitcoins, you must only realise that they have access to the web and they can get fooled real easily. They are oblivious to the fact of how the world functions. I suggest you give them basic information but do not share passwords and keys as they are innocent and do not understand the reality equation. Hope this helped!

 I don't think the op was wrong in introducing his kids to the world of BTC and cyber security at a young age because frankly speaking, the world has gone digital and everything you can learn or need to know is and could be on your fingertips if you are a computer literate.
 Learning is in stages and although it might some feel it may be too much for that kid, what about situations where some parents pile their kid's brain with piano classes, foreign languages and the rest of them believing that it's the best time to do these stuffs since their brains are still fresh?

This is very true, children are easily lured to give sensitive information about their personal and home life. Teaching the children first about cyber security is essential than exposing them on how to make money. It is important they know this before hand before investing or looking for money. The world has changed and cyber attackers are always looking any possible means to attack their victims.
I never thought of this all this while, thanks for sharing this as it will really help a lot.

I think the children can still make money while they learn about Cyber Security, Children of nowadays are too smart to be lured into giving out sensitive information about their home or personal lives. I will prefer to engage my kids to ways of their financial freedom before teaching them about cyber security.

Assume that most families are dysfunctional and cannot protect or teach their kids anything, otherwise we will continue to see these statistics for the next 10 years.

In situations like these, the browsers should step up and do something to fight this. Make an ML model of the users' browsing & clicking habits to identify whether you are dealing with a kid, or a grown-up. Then on all subscription pages, present a challenge to the user if positively identified as a kid (they can make it a physics or economics question for example, but never a "enter your password" prompt because if they stole the credit card, chances are they can steal the passwords from their dysfunctional parents as well).

They might even be able to wall the checkout page behind an IQ test ;D

It is also very important to teach how kids how to keep privacy , make them to understand how risky it is telling their friends about how much of bitcoin their parents has to their friends,  and not to also disclose password to their friends.  Make them to understand password is a personal property that is not supposed to be shared with anyone.