Experts explain why you shouldn't post back to school photos on social media
With kids starting or going back to school, Facebook and Insta will be flooded with photos of little ones standing against doors in their spanking new school uniforms.
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Incredibly, parents across the UK share around 1.3 billion photos of their children on social media, a third of which (390 million) are shared on public social media pages that can be accessed by strangers.
That’s a lot of snaps.
However, cybersecurity company McAfee is warning parents about the dangers of sharing such photos on social media, in case they end up falling into the wrong hands.
Raj Samani, Chief Scientist and Fellow at McAfee, told The Metro: ‘Before proud parents share their children’s ‘first day’ photos on social media, they must consider the potential consequences of what they post.
‘These sorts of images can be used to gather personal information such as school, location, a child’s full name, or even birth dates to paint a picture of who they are.’
A survey from McAfee found that 71% of parents agreed that online photos could end up in the wrong hands, but 58% of parents believe it’s their right to post the images without the consent of their child.
The survey, which asked 1,000 parents with children aged between one month and 16 years old, found that most parents were concerned about paedophilia, stalking, kidnapping and cyberbullying when sharing images online.
‘Posting photos and videos on social media is a great way for parents to share what’s going on in their lives with loved ones,’ said Gary Davis, chief consumer security evangelist at McAfee.
‘However, the survey reveals parents are not giving enough consideration to what they post online and how it could harm their children. If shared images get into the wrong hands, they can be used to gather information like birth dates, home address, school, or even the child’s full name which could lead to cyberbullying or even identity theft.’
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The security site added some tips to keep your photos safe if you do decide to post them online.
Watch out for geo tagging
Some social network sites will tag your location when they photo is uploaded. You can turn this feature off in your settings.
Lock down your privacy settings
This will ensure that the photos you share will be able to be seen by the people who you’ve given permission to see it. However, you should still treat every post as if it’s going out to the public.
Set some rules with friends and family
Be clear with friends and family about what you find acceptable for them to post about you and your children. Make sure you stick to the ground rules you set too!
For more information on how to keep kids safe on social media click here.
Chicken Clicking is a great book for parents to use to introduce internet safety – and it has a fun story, too! See more details here at Amazon.
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