Dec. 22, 2023
By Autumn Ortiz
Staff Writer
Social media allows people to express their interests and share details about their lives with the world.
In the moment, it can seem harmless to post photos online. This points to the reason Security.org reports that over three-quarters of parents share videos and images of their children online. Similarly, in a survey of 74 LHS students, 70% said their parents share images of them online. These parents are usually well-intentioned, but they tend to be unaware of the dangers their actions pose.
Social media creates a serious safety threat for young children and teens due to the personal information some posts contain. For instance, on the first day of school, parents post photos of their children that include signs or chalkboards featuring their children’s names, the grade levels they are entering, the name of the school they are attending and even their teachers’ names. This is an easy way for a stalker or someone with bad intentions to find out the children’s location and use this information for malicious purposes.
Social media is a semipermanent platform where a child can have a digital footprint before they are even out of diapers.
Parents should be aware that every day, there are at least 500,000 predators online. In fact, one in five children report they have been solicited or contacted by a predator in the last year, according to the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children.
Social media is a semipermanent platform where a child can have a digital footprint before they are even out of diapers. This creates a risk of the child’s identity being stolen.
According to The Bump, an informational website for new parents, one in 50 kids experiences identity theft as a result of social media posts that give away personal information. It may seem harmless to the average viewer, but to a scam artist, that information can lead them to their next victim.
This can especially affect a child if their parent decides to post videos of them. For instance, Katarina Strode is a social media influencer who regrets posting about her children online. At first, Strode posted photos and videos of her children without a second thought. She gained upwards of 40,000 digital followers.
Strode experienced a wake-up call when she found out there was another woman presenting images of the children as her own. Strode said this was the moment she realized people could be saving pictures of her children to use at their own will.
In the end, it is up to each parent to decide whether to post photos of their children online, but as they make this decision, they should consider the risks. Parents are proud of their children’s achievements and milestones, but knowing their child’s safety is at stake, they should think twice before hitting “post.”
