Back-to-school 2026: UAE parents face new digital safety challenges amid rising cyber threats

Back-to-school 2026: UAE parents face new digital safety challenges amid rising cyber threats

As the new school year approaches in the UAE, parents face a challenge that extends far beyond textbooks and uniforms: protecting their children in an increasingly complex digital landscape where threats evolve faster than safeguards.

The stakes have never been higher. Under Federal Decree-Law No. 26 of 2025 on Child Digital Safety, which came into force in early 2026, parents and guardians are now legally responsible for monitoring their children's online activity. The law also established a Child Digital Safety Council chaired by the Minister of Family, reflecting the government's recognition of digital threats as a serious child welfare issue.

Yet despite this legal mandate, a significant gap remains. According to UAE Cybersecurity Council data, 72% of children aged between 8 and 12 use smartphones daily, but only 43% of parents regularly monitor their children's online activity.

The threats parents face today

The digital dangers confronting UAE families have grown more sophisticated and harder to detect. Rashed Al-Momani, General Manager for the Middle East at Kaspersky, identifies the most pressing concerns: oversharing personal information, exposure to inappropriate content, cyberbullying, online scams, unsafe interactions with strangers, and the growing spread of misinformation through AI-powered platforms.

One in every three children in the UAE has been contacted by strangers online, according to UAE Cybersecurity Council findings. Meanwhile, Kaspersky research shows that over 39% of parents and 33% of children in the UAE maintain public social media accounts, unknowingly sharing personal details like location, school names and hobbies.

The UAE ranks first globally in the Global Cybersecurity Index, yet the country faces over 200,000 cyberattacks daily from organized crime groups, hacktivists and state-sponsored actors, according to 2024-2025 UAE cyber-threat statistics. This high-threat environment makes digital safety education essential for families.

When manipulation looks familiar

Mohammed AbuKhater, Vice President and Managing Director for F5 Middle East, Turkey and Africa, points to a particularly insidious trend.

The biggest threat these days isn't some complex hacking scheme; it's psychological manipulation. Phishing and social engineering attacks have become highly convincing because scammers use the very information we share online to make their traps look genuine.

This becomes especially dangerous for children, whose school names, uniforms, locations and friendships often appear in online photos and posts. According to the 2023 K12 SIX Annual Report, phishing accounted for over 60% of all reported cybersecurity incidents in schools. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency reports that 90% of successful cyberattacks in schools begin with a phishing email.

Subhajeet Singha, Senior Security Researcher at Acronis TRU, warns that social engineering targeting minors has become more sophisticated, with threat actors using AI-generated voice and video to impersonate classmates, teachers or school administrators. Credential phishing campaigns now specifically target school portal logins, as a compromised student account provides access to broader school infrastructure.

The education sector has seen major breaches this year. In 2026, the Canvas learning management platform suffered an attack affecting 275 million users across 9,000 schools. The PowerSchool breach in late 2024 exposed over 62 million student records. According to recent research, 52% of U.S. school districts experienced a cybersecurity event in 2025, up 36% from the previous year, and 2.4% of all ransomware attacks in the first half of 2026 targeted the education sector.

Beyond that, data broker exposure is a growing concern: children's personal data including full names, school names and locations circulates on the open web through breached EdTech platforms and poorly secured school apps,

Singha notes.

The AI factor

Artificial intelligence has introduced a new dimension to child safety concerns. Al-Momani's research shows that AI applications and services are now among the most searched categories by children globally. In 2025, approximately two-thirds of teenagers worldwide reported using AI chatbots, with roughly a quarter using them daily.

The risks extend beyond homework shortcuts.

Kids need to understand that whatever they type into an AI tool isn't guaranteed to stay private. They should never feed an AI their personal details, passwords, private chats or photos,

AbuKhater cautions.

Singha calls data leakage the biggest risk most parents overlook.

When a child pastes an essay, personal notes or homework containing personal details into a free AI chatbot, that data may be logged, used for model training or stored in ways that are not transparent.

Perhaps more concerning is the emotional dimension. A chatbot can begin to feel like a friend precisely because it is always available and appears willing to listen. Parents need to help children understand that an AI tool can be helpful without being a trusted human relationship.

The pre-term digital check-up

Before the first day of school, experts recommend parents conduct a comprehensive digital safety review with their children. AbuKhater suggests starting with the basics: ensure operating systems, apps, browsers and software are fully updated, and remove anything unfamiliar or downloaded from unofficial sources.

Review privacy settings and see which apps have access to the camera, microphone, location, contacts and photos, and whether those permissions are genuinely necessary,

he advises.

Singha recommends making this a collaborative process rather than a secret inspection.

Go through the device together with your child. Delete apps they no longer use or don't recognize. Update everything because outdated software is the easiest way for something to go wrong.

Parents should check lock screens, app permissions and which accounts are signed in. For school devices, children should not remain logged into personal accounts that could expose private photos or messages in a classroom setting.

Ankita Garg, a parent and Founder of Founder Mode Bootcamp, emphasizes checking privacy and account settings.

Review who can contact them, location sharing, camera and microphone permissions, passwords and the apps they are actually using, including gaming, messaging and AI tools.

The point, she notes, is not just to impose restrictions but to help children understand why those settings matter.

Building trust before installing software

Experts agree that the strongest defense is open communication established before problems arise. Michael Connor, Head of Primary and Digital Lead at Nord Anglia International School Abu Dhabi, emphasizes helping children recognize when behaviour crosses a line, whether that's bullying, pressure to share something, a suspicious message or contact from someone they don't know.

Garg recommends practicing scenarios before they happen.

Ask, 'What would you do if someone you don't know messaged you?' or 'What if someone told you not to tell your parents?'

She adds:

I also think children need to hear very clearly: you will not get into trouble for coming to me.

For cyberbullying, Singha recommends teaching children to document incidents with screenshots and timestamps, and to use platform reporting tools. For scams, his rule is straightforward:

If someone you don't know asks you to click a link, send money, share a code or keep a conversation secret from your parents, it's a scam until proven otherwise.

Global data from a 2020 DQ Institute survey covering 63% of the world's population found that 6 out of 10 children aged 8-12 are exposed to various cyber risks online, 1 in 2 encounter cyberbullying, and close to one-third experienced cyber threats such as phishing or hacking.

Five rules worth remembering

Rather than overwhelming children with lengthy guidelines, experts recommend a handful of clear, actionable rules. Al-Momani suggests avoiding sharing personal information, using strong passwords, thinking twice before clicking links, downloading apps only from trusted sources, verifying information and being respectful online.

Singha reduces it to five essential points:

• Never share passwords with anyone, including friends, not even temporarily
• If a message or request feels off, trust that instinct and tell a parent or teacher
• Anything you post or send online can be screenshotted and shared permanently, so act accordingly
• School accounts are for school only; don't reuse those passwords on gaming or social media accounts, and don't sign up for random services with your school email
• Free apps and tools aren't actually free; if you're not paying for a product, your data is the product, so check with a parent before installing anything new

Garg keeps her version equally simple:

Protect your passwords and personal information; think before you post; don't automatically trust what you see or who contacts you online; and if anything makes you uncomfortable, stop and tell an adult.

As Garg notes, the back-to-school digital conversation is less about controlling every click and more about preparing children for the moments when parents aren't watching.

As our children become more digitally independent, we cannot supervise every click. Our job is to give them the judgment and confidence to make safer choices when we are not around.

That represents the fundamental shift between the school worries of previous generations and those of today. Where parents once worried about homework grades, today's families must contend with invisible threats including malicious links, deceptive messages, exploitative permissions and AI-generated manipulation that can follow a child far beyond the classroom.