As summer beings to wind down and school starts once again, social media platforms are flooded with back-to-school photos of smiling kids in their best outfits posted by proud parents.
Accompanied by captions celebrating the start of 4th grade at So-And-So Elementary or props written on colorful paper sharing a child’s age or class name, these seemingly harmless pictures can be a joy for friends and family to see. They also have the potential to put private information about you or your child at risk.
“We have the best of intentions, but not everybody who sees these pictures and these posts and these videos will have the best of intention, so we’ve got to really guard against, the bad actors online,” Donna Rice Hughes, President and CEO of Enough Is Enough, a nonprofit organization that focuses on making the internet safer for children and families, told USA TODAY. “As a general rule, don’t share any what we call personally identifiable information.”
Why school start dates are so different:Homework in August or summer in September? Why back-to-school dates vary so much across US
What is personally identifiable information?
According to Hughes, this term can refer to anything posted online that gives viewers hints about someone’s personal life, such as where they live, their name, age, etc. In the case of common back-to-school posts, this can include:
- Indications of where the child goes to school, either by name or general area. This can include geotags and using the “check-in” function on social media platforms, naming the child’s teacher, taking pictures in front of the school or identifying the school mascot.
- Hints as to where the child lives, not only by mentioning a city or neighborhood name but including the front of your home or another recognizable landmark in a photo.
- Where the child engages in after-school actives, such as the name of a sports team, photos of the child wearing a sporty jersey or the name of the programs the child attends.
Read the full article here
