Privacy Play – Passwords

Creating Strong Passwords

Something only you will know
Passwords are not going away anytime soon. If kids don’t learn basic password management skills for the devices, apps, sites and games they use, we’re setting our kids up for long-term failure from a security perspective. The security skills kids learn today are extremely important as passwords (in some form) will most likely be used by them throughout their lifetimes. Here are a few activities to do with your child to learn important skills in password creation.

How good of a detective are you?
It’s important that passwords don’t contain any personal identifying information, that way it’s more difficult for others to guess. Avoid using passwords with one or two words and instead opt for a password phrase.

In this activity, look at the two columns of words – one column is a fictional character and the other column has their “secret password”. See if you can figure out their secret passwords by drawing a line from the character to their password.

These passwords are easy to guess because they are simple one or two words that are identifying to the character. Create a better password for each character using a phrase instead, which are more difficult for others to guess.

Recipe for a perfect password
Now that your child has practice coming up with password phrases, let’s add capital letters, numbers and symbols to craft the perfect password.

In this activity, choose a food, movie, or song that is special to you. Create a password that is made up of at least 8 characters. Add some capital letters, numbers and symbols. Underneath the password, write the sentence that will help you remember the password.

Password phrases with numbers, symbols and letters are much more difficult for others to guess, but you can create fun phrases to make them easier for you and your child to remember. These activities will help your child craft strong passwords that only they will know, that they can actually remember!

You can download the full activity sheet here:

Strong Passwords