Why you shouldn't post back-to-school photos on social media
During back-to-school season, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of posting cute photos of your kids on social media. You've seen those signs that kids hold with all the stats on back to school day, right? Although it's a precious memory, it's better to keep that information offline.
Let’s talk about why it’s not a good idea post these pictures.
Here's why:
TMI (too much information)
You'd be sharing your child's full name, age, their school name and location, grade level, teacher's name and future profession. And even if you've got your privacy locked down to only "friends" on social, any photo or post can be downloaded, shared, edited and used in horrible ways, now or in the future.
You don't want to volunteer this information to strangers; you also don't want it used to steal your child's identity or bully them.
Consent
How would you like to have someone take a picture of you that you hated and then post it everywhere? It would be horrible to see that photo everywhere, right?
Consent is this idea that you own your digital image and have the right to approve it before another person shares your photo.
It's important to teach kids about giving and receiving consent before they or their friends post content on social. It's just as important that you ask their permission before posting their photos and stories and err on the side of caution.
Privacy
You've probably had conversations with your child about thinking before sharing online, keeping their "digital footprint" small and keeping private information private. You can share an example of these back to school photos with your child as a "what not to do" online because it exposes too much personal information to the world.
We want to keep our personal information private.
If you still want to share:
Let’s talk about a few better ways to share those cute photos with friends and family.
Create a family and friends group text chat and send those photos
Email photos out to family and friends
And if you decide to share on social media, you can still take photos of the back of your child’s head or their backpack or something else that doesn’t give strangers any additional information. Make sure your settings are on "friends only", be mindful about what's in the background of your photo (it could be used to identify your location) and don't include any written details (like name and school), just a photo.
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