ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- Young children are using the Internet more and more, so cybersecurity literacy is needed at a very young age. 

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, so Center One’s cybersecurity class spoke to fifth graders at Meriweather Lewis Elementary School about how they can be smart while using the Internet.

“We live in a digital age, and a lot of our resources for learning are online. They need to know how to protect themselves and it needs to be throughout education, it can’t be something we just learn as adults,” said Heather Schmidt, the cybersecurity teacher at Center One. 

Hackers could trick kids through links, saying it’s to a cheat code for their favorite game or a gift such as money. 

“I am presenting to elementary students about phishing scams. It really is like probably one of the number one security risks in any given network or organization,” said Callahan Craig, a cybersecurity student.

Phishing scams are fake messages sent out to look real. The most common are texts that look like they’re from the bank or are password change requests.





These can look like real texts from any of these organizations but are scams giving hackers access to your information.

“It's things that really do look innocuous, they’re really, really good, sometimes and so you always have to be just really extra, double quadruple careful about anything that you’re clicking on or downloading,” Craig added. 

Experts are telling parents to have conversations with their kids, and teach them that if they aren’t sure, don’t click. Schmidt, who has a young son, says she has these conversations frequently. 

“And so he likes to sit in and play video games and we talk about how people on chat might not be somebody their age, and if they start asking information about them or sharing links that those could be things that are not fun and might not be playing with another child, it could be someone with malicious intent,” she said. 

This conversation will continue in school.

“Department of Technology has designed and offered access to lesson plans to continue the conversation around safe use of the Internet,” said Anna McQuitty, a fifth-grade teacher.