What is it?
Authentication is the process of identifying an individual, and is often the first step to providing access to a website, or a special page within that site.
How does it work?
Generally, authentication involves the individual providing the right username and password, sometimes in combination with answering a secret question with the right answer that only the user would know, or placing their fingertip on an authentication device that matches the fingerprint with one stored previously for the user.
Why is it useful?
Authentication is useful to ensure that only the right person is identified to have access to private and/or secure information.
What do you need to keep in mind about your child and authentication?
Because authentication is usually the first step to providing access to normally closed areas, it is important that your child understands to keep their usernames and passwords secret and not to share them, or yours, with anyone including friends.
Authentication can also refer to the process of registering software - entering authentication code to prove that you are the legitimate owner of the product. In most cases each code can only be in use on one (or perhaps more) computers.