When sharing photos of your children, please keep in mind the possible risks that could arise from doing this. Below is a list for you to refer to. Please remember to have your privacy settings on high and remember who you are willing to let view your photos before accepting friend requests.
1. Digital Kidnapping – happens when someone on Facebook steals photos of yourself (or your child) and claims them as their own. They can do this if your photos are easily accessible, and usually end up renaming the child and claiming them as their own under a different alias. Unfortunately, this is quite common and usually you may not even know it has happened to you.
2. Location – When sharing your child’s photo, be sure to ensure that you haven’t posted a location or an image of them standing outside the school. This makes it extremely easy to target them as you have just given away where they will be and what they look like, as well as their name.
3. Consent Issues – This one might sound silly but is in fact just as important as the rest. Sharing photos of your child can have an impact on their future social lives as they may be too young to give consent, and effectively you are taking away their privacy rights from an extremely young age.
4. Advertising – The new Facebook trend is to monitor your profile to target what your interests are. If you are sharing a ton of baby images and are wondering why baby products keep popping up in your news feed, there is your answer. This is used so they can target you with specific ads that meet your needs to help companies successfully sell more of their product.
5. Once Online, Always Online – Once you have shared a photo, and then thought twice and deleted it, it will always remain out there on a server and become public property.
6. Personal Information – This one isn’t just about the Kidlets. By sharing your birthday online, your home address or home town, your full name and a where you work, you are making it extremely easy to become a victim of identity theft and possible repercussions such as break and enter or credit card fraud. Be vigilant.
7. Nude Photos – I know some of us find a baby bottom adorably cute and innocent but that’s not the same as everyone else. Unfortunately pedophiles and predators can use Facebook to access these images, Photoshop them and then use them for their own personal use or sell them off. This is a hard truth to face and I know a lot of us want to believe that it will never happen to our child but we are online. It is an open world and people will decide what they want to access and what they want to do with it. By sharing photos online, you are giving access to BILLIONS of users worldwide and it isn’t impossible for your child’s photo to end up in the wrong hands.
If none of the above is convincing enough for you to change your privacy settings or change something, please read this article from a Pedophile Detective who had to work up enough strength during 10 years to write this article. It will change your entire view and show you things from the other side of the fence. (https://sweatdepot.blogspot.com.au/…/what-predators-look-fo…)
Please remember that ‘ONLINE’ is never safe which is why we need to look out for each other and make sure that our children and their innocence and privacy are protected.