Dos And Don’ts Of Sharing Back-To-School Photos – Police Warning Parents About The Risks
Sharing back-to-school photos. In the age of social media, it’s pretty much become a standard rite of passage. Not only that, it’s pretty much expected that your feeds will be flooded with them. As cute as it is to see kids in their “first day fits” with new backpacks, holding a sign, there are some risks that parents need to keep in mind. But we got you! Here’s everything you need to know about sharing back-to-school photos.
Dangers Of Sharing Back-To-School Photos
While we all love the floods on our feeds of cute back-to-school pictures, police and child advocacy organizations across the country are warning parents and guardians about the dangers of doing so. By providing information like your child’s name, age, teacher, and favorite things, you can unintentionally give information to predators, scammers, and bullies. This doesn’t mean that you can’t post a picture. It just means that there are some important precautions you can take to limit the safety risks to your child.
Dos And Don’ts Of Sharing Back-To-School Photos
The Child Rescue Coalition offers several tips when posting photos.
DO turn off location services when taking the picture. This will keep your child’s location from being recorded as part of the photo’s data. If you need to keep it on for tracking apps like Life360, take a screenshot of the photo, and send that instead of the original.
DO consider the background. Always make sure that things like house numbers, school names, or other info that could reveal personal info are not included. Consider other people in the background in a public setting or large event. There may be other children/adults who may not want their photo taken and/or shared.
DON’T include school or team logos. Crop out or blur the name or logos of the child’s school or sports teams. Jerseys, uniforms, or other branded attire. This could give a predator valuable information about where to find your child in real life.
DO beware of certain hashtags. Hashtags may seem innocent, but remember, there are people out there who are looking to take advantage of your own good intentions around your child. Sexual predators are known to search for common kid-related hashtags like #bathtime and #pottytraining. There’s a whole list of kid-related hashtags to avoid.
DON’T share “favorites.” It’s sweet when we see your kid’s favorite superhero is Spider-man, that they love collecting bugs, or doing puzzles. But that info in the hands of a predator can be a problem. They could use “favorites” to gain your child’s trust or pretend to be friends of the family.
Wishing your kids (and you) a happy, healthy, and safe school year. Please be sure to be careful sharing back-to-school photos.
