CONNECTICUT, USA — It’s almost time for kids to hang up their summer fun and head back to school. With this comes back to school pictures on social media. Experts are warning parents about a back-to-school photo trend that may share too much personal information.
We’ve all seen parents posting pictures of children holding a back-to-school sign with fun facts and other information on it. Police say if parents are going to use these boards or posters less is more when posting online.
“We want to celebrate kids going back to school, we just want to do it safely,” said Lt. Kate Cummings with Connecticut State Police.
Back-to-school time always means pictures and proud parents flooding social media with first-day pics, but with this, experts want to make sure you keep your child’s safety in mind.
“So, although we are proud parents I think we need to be concerned about how much we are sharing,” said Scott Driscoll.
It’s especially important to be cognizant when posting those fun and creative back-to-school signs.
“I would say the first name of your child is fine. The grade they are going to is also ok. I would avoid putting the specific school they are going to. I would avoid putting their teacher on it and even the mascot for the school to give anyone an indication on where they could be attending,” said South Windsor Police Department Public Information Officer, Sgt. Mark Cleverdon.
Driscoll, the founder of Internet Safety Concepts says the challenge of social media, especially posting signs with personal information, is the privacy and control you have, or perhaps, don’t have, once the picture is posted.
“All things that we would tell our child to never share with a stranger, but we are putting it online. Now, if your account is set to private and you only have a couple of friends that might be a way to share it. However, with a screenshot or losing control over who is in our world, we could lose control over some personal information that we tell our kids to never share,” said Driscoll.
Connecticut state police said avoiding these things can help stop child predators or the possibility of being scammed.
“We’re seeing more and more people utilizing children’s information to maybe leverage against them, pretending like they know the child because they are collecting all this information,” said Cummings.
Connecticut State Police are also giving more tips on back-to-school online safety when taking pictures:
- Avoid taking pictures in front of your house.
- Avoid taking pictures in front of the school.
- Review your child’s school social media contract.
DeAndria Turner is a multi-media journalist at FOX61 News. She can be reached at dturner@fox61.com.
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