There’s a back-to-school social media tradition that could compromise your children’s identities.
As students across the country head back to school, parents with social media pages know what to expect: post after post of first-day-of-school photos from understandably proud parents, each holding a personalized sign. Typically, it includes the child’s name, grade, school, height, and maybe even the teacher.
But is that too much information for the whole world?
The Better Business Bureau warns against revealing too many personal details about your child in social media feeds.
“Unfortunately, we know that children’s identities are stolen just as often as adults,” said BBB spokeswoman Melanie McGovern.
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She said to always check your surroundings when taking a photo for social media.
“Make sure your home address isn’t visible in the picture,” she said. “Maybe it’s blurry or has a generic background, or it’s just in street view so people can’t see where you live.”
The Better Business Bureau offers these additional tips:
- Be careful of fake friend requests this time of year.
- Please check your privacy settings again.
- Remember who can see your posts.
Mother Cornesha Broadway said the days of posting back-to-school photos are over.
“When he was five, I did it,” she said of her son. “But now you have to be careful,” she continued.
McGovern also reminds parents of the potential safety risk.
“If someone is on an inactive social media account and can see this (post), they can use that information to gain your child’s trust,” she said.
McGovern advises that you should feel free to take back-to-school photos, but limit the information and share the photos only with family and close friends, or not post them at all and keep them to yourself.
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