How to keep your family safe online this Christmas
The upcoming festive season means more screens, more devices and more distractions.
Cyber criminals know that too. When we’re busy with family, food, gifts and travel, our attention is scattered—and that’s what they rely on.
Let’s break it down, by age group, with what to look out for this holiday season:
For kids
What to watch out for:
Gaming consoles, tablets and smartphones are often handed out as gifts or get more use over the holidays. With that increased usage comes the chance of exposure to unwanted chat, accidental in-game purchases, or strangers in multiplayer games.
New apps may be downloaded without checking permissions or safety settings.
Kids may click links in holiday-themed promotions (they’re excited!) that turn out to be phishing or malware traps.
What parents and caregivers can do:
Set up devices ahead of time
Enable parental controls, restrict in-game chat, disable unnecessary micro-transactions or set a spending limit. Read our gaming guide here.Set up new tech with your kids
If your child receives a device, app or game, make sure you sit together, set it up together, check privacy settings, and set expectations for usage.Set a screen time limit during the holidays
Decide together a device curfew. e.g. no gaming after 8pm, or introduce a family tech-free time slot.Teach them to check links with an adult
If a child sees a link somewhere promising a “free gift code”, “holiday bonus” or “Christmas special”, encourage them to check with you first to verify it’s safe.
Gaming tip: For games with chat and messaging, switch off public chat or set “friends only” mode. Remind kids that not everyone they meet online is who they say they are.
For teens
What they face this season:
Social media usage tends to spike over the holidays: sharing moments, stories, going live, engaging more with peers. FOMO, the Fear Of Missing Out peaks, especially amoung teens.
New regulation in Australia: From 10 December 2025, age-restricted social media platforms must take “reasonable steps” to prevent Australians under the age of 16 from having accounts. While this is aimed at under-16s, it signals a broader tightening of digital safety expectations.
With a festive mood comes more posts, more check-ins, more sharing—which means more risk of oversharing (location, travel plans, when home is unattended) and more exposure to phishing and social engineering tied to “holiday deals”.
What to encourage:
End of year privacy review
Encourage teens to check who can see their posts, location sharing turned off, and that accounts are secured with strong passwords + two-factor authentication.Shopping scam awareness
Many Boxing Day or holiday flash sales appear around this time. Remind them that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. The ACCC is reporting a number of fake online retailers posing as local Aussie businesses.Be mindful of social validation: The more posts/stories you share, the more data you put out there: what you bought, where you are, who you’re with. Use discretion.
Talk about the regulation: It’s a good moment to have a conversation about the government introducing the under-16s social media restrictions. It’s not about “just banning” but about limiting risk and giving kids and teens some tech breathing space.
Keep devices and software updated: Shared WiFi and holiday travels increases risk. Make sure phones and laptops have latest patches and avoid connecting to unknown networks such as public shopping centres.
For adults
The big risks this Christmas:
Scams ramp up over the holiday period: fake “holiday deals”, dodgy e-retailers, spoofed delivery or courier messages, fake parcel tracking links.
For example: Australia Post has warned about phishing messages impersonating them, claiming a failed delivery due to “invalid postcode”, with links that lead to malware or data theft.
“Boxing Day” and “after-Christmas” sales drive high traffic to online retail. Scammers set up fake e-stores or deep-discount traps. Your attention is divided (shopping, family, travel) — prime time for scammers hoping you’ll miss something.
What you can do:
Pause on the click
If you receive an SMS or email about a “delivery issue”, don’t tap the link. Open the courier or Australia Post app yourself to check. Or go back to the original order and click on the tracking link. These ‘delivery issue’ prompts sometimes have nothing to do with your delivery and are mass-produced phishing scams.Check URLs and senders
Does the domain match exactly? Are there weird characters? Is the email from the official address? You’re going to receive an influx of emails this holiday season. Stay alert to scammers slipping in with lookalike emails.Stick to trusted retailers
In the rush of sales, avoid brand names you don’t recognise. If you’re buying from a smaller e-store, check reviews, verify contact details, use secure payment methods like PayPal that allow charge-backs.Renew your antivirus
Black Friday and the Christmas season is a great time to upgrade your home antivirus and potentially pick up a deal on a family license that can extend to more devices. Don’t head into the new year without it!
Finish this year with peace of mind
A few simple precautions now can safeguard your Christmas against scammers— so you can focus on enjoying time with family and friends.
From all of us at ShadowSafe, have a safe and relaxing holidays.
Related: Download and print our FamilySafe Checklist
