Predators Can Use Photos On Social Media To Target Children

Parents and Educators alike love to share photos on social media of what the children have been up to. Parents often share photos of their children on recent holidays, family events, important milestones while Educators share activities the children have engaged in, excursions the children had been on etc. Even though sharing these with others will enable them to see how well each child is doing, you could be putting your child at risk to predators.

Chief Scientist Raj Samani, from security company McAfree, states that predators can put together pieces of information from photos of children posted on social media to gather information about your child including the child's full name, the school or service location and even birth dates.

It's vital that when posting images of children on social media you have the right privacy settings enabled, disable location - tagging and setting the ground rules with friends, such as asking permission before posting anything on social media.

When posting photos of children online ensure that there is nothing in the photo that can be used to seek out the child such as birth dates, home addresses, school uniform, names etc. Don't give away the child's location, so ensure geotagging is disabled.

The most important rule - only share photos with friends and family you have approved. Everything else goes out to the public and just because you delete the photo doesn't mean it has disappeared.

Keep children safe! It's your responsibility to ensure that the children's images dont turn up into the wrong hands.

Reference:
Rach, Jessica "Security Expert Warns Proud Parents NOT To Post  Snaps Of Their Children On Social Media", Mail Online, 5 September 2018