Back to school pics on social media

SeptemberRains · 04/09/2026 21:26

Why is every child going to ‘smash’ everything?
Have just seen another Instagrammer saying that so what if her stunning 12 year old disses the teachers - what’s the point of them anyway 🙄

outofofficeon · 04/09/2026 18:20

I get pics of children from the other end of the country, completely unknown to me, in my feed.
I cannot for the life of me understand why parents would want total randos seeing pictures of their children! It’s mind blowing to me.

Original poster

abouttogetlynched · 04/09/2026 09:27

Saw all the usual pics this week, but the one that got me the most was something similar to this. Picture of the child holding the sign, displaying their name, school, teacher, things they like, what they want to be when they’re older etc. It’s like FFS! “Hi Jimmy, you’re in Mrs Tombliboo’s class aren’t you? Your mum told me to pick you up. I’ve got some pickled onion Monster Munch here and I’m a footballer, so I can help you with also becoming a footballer when you’re older. Oh look, this is your favourite song I’ve got playing in my car, hop in!”
I know the chances are small, but what’s the point? What’s the benefit? Just send the pic to your parents or whoever you want to see it, not all the randoms you’ve got on social media.
Like others have said, that image could easily be shared elsewhere if the wrong person saw it.

OP posts:

SeptemberRains · 03/09/2026 20:48

This is worth a watch.

www.dataprotection.ie/en/children

Gwenhwyfar · 03/09/2026 20:43

opencecilgee · 03/09/2025 22:05

I don’t think there’s a risk but wish they would bore off

i sent back to school photos to my family and one close friend

nobody else gives a shit do they

I quite like seeing them actually, although they make me feel old. That feeling of how time flies.

Gwenhwyfar · 03/09/2026 20:40

"I know I know these people, but some are ex work colleagues, ex school pals etc - people whose kids I have never met. Who else is on their social media that they don’t know that well who can see this stuff?"

But surely you can guess which school they go to just based on having an idea where they live? Or seeing them in real life, which you might with ex colleagues and ex school friends even if you haven't so far.

MyLemonMentor · 02/09/2026 15:20

abouttogetlynched · 03/09/2025 17:49

I have seen countless “back to school” photos on my social media today, but AIBU to be surprised (although I don’t know if I really am) by the number of people who give the names of their DC and show the school they go to?

I know I know these people, but some are ex work colleagues, ex school pals etc - people whose kids I have never met. Who else is on their social media that they don’t know that well who can see this stuff?

I’ve counted 5 today who are teachers and have posted their primary aged kids with name and school shown. Shouldn’t they know better? Like from safeguarding POV?

These images are burned into servers somewhere far off, never to really disappear. Anyone can take these images and do increasingly horrible things with them. We need a big discussion about what we are posting on social media. AI companies are going to make social media even less family friendly.
I think you are being very very reasonable.

blondebombsite13 · 04/09/2025 11:08

literalbinbag · 03/09/2025 18:44

I’m a Brownie leader. EVERY year without fail I have to send an email out to parents reminding them of the safeguarding rules of “please don’t post pictures of your children in their school uniform with the badge fully visible in front of your front door with house number fully visible”

Why though?

people see the kids in real life, in their uniform and coming out their house.

As I said in my previous post, I’m all for online safety, but the school logo thing is just something I don’t get.

TheBerMonths · 03/09/2025 23:54

Schools do have safeguarding measures in place for certain children who can't be photographed in uniform, but the risk for those children will be far greater than others.

TunnocksOrDeath · 03/09/2025 23:24

lastnightadjsavedmylifee · 03/09/2025 21:40

But surely if you know enough about your Facebook friends to know where they live you can make a pretty good guess at which school they're at. I've also had friends blur out the logo on the kids uniform but the cardigans are such a distinct pattern you would know which school it was anyway.

Not always. DC has to walk past two state primaries and a private prep school to get to their own (state) primary, which is less than a mile away, and there are another two primaries a similar distance away in the other direction. Round here it really isn't possible to guess what school someone will attend just because you know what street they live on.

RozGruber · 03/09/2025 22:37

DoodleLug · 03/09/2025 22:19

Whilst I wouldn't worry about a random picture of my child and someone knowing what school she goes to I hate the thought that it could be banked as wanking material for some perv.

There was one last week, a first day of high-school pic that was shared and bookmarked THOUSANDS of times in 24hours on X. Nothing remarkable about the pic, a pretty girl in her school uniform posing a little.

I suspect there are some details missing about the (alleged) incident you refer to in your last paragraph. Did you learn about this from any kind of reliable source or is it just something your paranoid nan posted on Facebook? You can literally google “secondary school girl first day of school pictures” and get hundreds of images just like the one you describe. There has to be more to the story if it’s even true.

RozGruber · 03/09/2025 22:24

literalbinbag · 03/09/2025 18:57

Nothing is ever private on SM, no matter how hard you try. All it takes is one person to save the photo, and send it to their friends “oh, isn’t such and such-es child so cute?!” Someone else saves it and sends it to someone else saying “XYZ’s child is just starting school, aren’t they so smart in their uniforms?!” The ways things reach people is endless. I’ve never met DH’s sister (she lives abroad), not friends with her on FB, but through friends of friends, could now give you exact GPS co-ordinates of where her kids go to school

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Your husband’s sister? Are you really a danger to that child in any non-made-up way?

NotMyDayJob · 03/09/2025 22:22

It’s not just about peadophiles though. I put up a (very rare) pic of my kids this morning and took out the identifying logos etc and made sure the background was fairly generic because I previously been harassed by someone (police involvement etc) and even though my social media is pretty locked down I still don’t want to take the risk. It’s not a threat to life situation but I still don’t want that person knowing where I am (even though the likelihood of them ever coming across the picture is so unlikely). It’s the risk assessment I do for everything I post on SM

DoodleLug · 03/09/2025 22:19

Whilst I wouldn't worry about a random picture of my child and someone knowing what school she goes to I hate the thought that it could be banked as wanking material for some perv.

There was one last week, a first day of high-school pic that was shared and bookmarked THOUSANDS of times in 24hours on X. Nothing remarkable about the pic, a pretty girl in her school uniform posing a little.

IllBeLookingAtTheMoon · 03/09/2025 22:14

A lot of naive people on here

Original poster

abouttogetlynched · 03/09/2025 22:13

MyTommyGunDont · 03/09/2025 22:13

I cross posted with this but I am actually gobsmacked we both independently used the phrase “your mum Julie”.

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I just thought the same lol

OP posts:

MyTommyGunDont · 03/09/2025 22:13

abouttogetlynched · 03/09/2025 22:09

I don’t post my DC online at all to be honest, I don’t use social media much but wouldn’t post anyway. I’ve had a bad experience, not quite deepfake but whereby I was tagged in a picture with a friend, so then a friend of this friend who took a dislike to me, made fake profiles of me on adult sites with AI so it looked like I was basically a porn star. There was very little info available on my FB profile that anyone I wasn’t friends with could see, but this person could find out enough about me due to being a friend of a friend so my name was used, where I worked, the town I lived in.
Maybe this has affected my thought process, but it shows it can and does happen.
As a PP has said, it’s not just about the fact that I now know this distant old friends child’s name and school, it’s also that I can find out so much more and so many people make this easily available, and why? Why are you making it possible for me to see your house number, or when their child is holding this board with their teachers name, their favourite food is chocolate ice cream etc? I get the risk is small, but what’s the benefit?
The likelihood of me calling ‘Amelia Smith’s’ school and saying “Hi, it’s Amelia’s mum who’s in Mrs Turner’s class. I need my friend to collect her early today as we’ve had a family emergency”, it’s small, tiny in fact. But there are fucked up people out there who could go and pick up Amelia and say “your mum Julie asked me to pick you up, but I’m going to take you for chocolate ice cream then take you home.”
The chance is so small but it’s not impossible.
It seems it’s more likely that someone has access to this info and can post it somewhere online with all that information. So you might not know someone who could kidnap your child, but you could know someone who is capable of sharing all their info and pics to a disturbing site.
The Childline link someone posted shows the risks of sharing this info and I’m sure they know better than us what awful things happen.
You really can’t trust people you know as well as you might think, let alone people you don’t know whose hands these pictures and info can fall into.

I cross posted with this but I am actually gobsmacked we both independently used the phrase “your mum Julie”.

Athreedoorwardrobe · 03/09/2025 22:13

I think YABU if the kids are old enough to understand.
Around 7+.
I mean people can see my kids in their uniforms walking through town anyway so thousands of people I don't know technically know where my kids go to school.
But my kids are walked to and from school by me. They have also had it drilled into them not to go off with anyone unless I've specifically told them it's ok.. even if they know that person or the person seems to know their name, or has some story.. I've told them never to go unless they hear it directly from me or their father or a teacher.
I really think everyone should be having this full discussion with their kids even if not on social media.
But really I think paedophile hysteria is a bit nuts.
Statistically very sadly, your kids are at more risk from family members than they are random strangers.

MyTommyGunDont · 03/09/2025 22:12

SaladAndChipsForTea · 03/09/2025 18:30

They can take a fancy to a child and know where they go to school.

They can create disgusting online material, including deep fake porn.

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Are child predators really that fussy they’d make so much of an effort to find a child online they “take a fancy to” and then track them down to their school?

Surely they’d be better just standing outside a different school every week and pick one of those children instead of tracking down a specific child from the internet.

I though the actual risk was that they would also know the kids name, mum’s name, potential pets and brothers and sisters names - and then if they did wait by the school then they could easily say “your mum Julie asked me to pick you up because she’s had to rush Rex to the vets. Your dad Simon is picking up your brother Tommy and I’ve said I’ll come and get you. Did you enjoy your holiday to France in summer?” And you’ve just got way more chance of convincing a child to go with you as you know all about them.

That said, I’ve still never heard of a single story of a child being molested where they were targeting because of a social media post with them in their uniform - but I could be proved wrong.

Original poster

abouttogetlynched · 03/09/2025 22:09

I don’t post my DC online at all to be honest, I don’t use social media much but wouldn’t post anyway. I’ve had a bad experience, not quite deepfake but whereby I was tagged in a picture with a friend, so then a friend of this friend who took a dislike to me, made fake profiles of me on adult sites with AI so it looked like I was basically a porn star. There was very little info available on my FB profile that anyone I wasn’t friends with could see, but this person could find out enough about me due to being a friend of a friend so my name was used, where I worked, the town I lived in.
Maybe this has affected my thought process, but it shows it can and does happen.
As a PP has said, it’s not just about the fact that I now know this distant old friends child’s name and school, it’s also that I can find out so much more and so many people make this easily available, and why? Why are you making it possible for me to see your house number, or when their child is holding this board with their teachers name, their favourite food is chocolate ice cream etc? I get the risk is small, but what’s the benefit?
The likelihood of me calling ‘Amelia Smith’s’ school and saying “Hi, it’s Amelia’s mum who’s in Mrs Turner’s class. I need my friend to collect her early today as we’ve had a family emergency”, it’s small, tiny in fact. But there are fucked up people out there who could go and pick up Amelia and say “your mum Julie asked me to pick you up, but I’m going to take you for chocolate ice cream then take you home.”
The chance is so small but it’s not impossible.
It seems it’s more likely that someone has access to this info and can post it somewhere online with all that information. So you might not know someone who could kidnap your child, but you could know someone who is capable of sharing all their info and pics to a disturbing site.
The Childline link someone posted shows the risks of sharing this info and I’m sure they know better than us what awful things happen.
You really can’t trust people you know as well as you might think, let alone people you don’t know whose hands these pictures and info can fall into.

OP posts:

ThreenagerCentral · 03/09/2025 22:08

I agree with OP and I would never do it. It’s just another piece of data online about your child that makes them more susceptible to online abuse and fraud. Children at risk of identity theft and fraud from 'sharenting' https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8904njvy03o

A young boy with an orange backpack on holding his mother's hand and looking into the distance.

Children at risk of identity theft and fraud from 'sharenting'

Researchers at the University of Southampton are warning of the dangers of posting your children's photos online.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8904njvy03o

mindutopia · 03/09/2025 22:06

I don’t have anyone I know with access to my social media who I wouldn’t want to know where my kids went to school. I don’t have public accounts where I share anything about my dc (we do have public business accounts, our dc never feature there). Everyone who can see my photos already knows my children’s names and know where we live and the ones who don’t know their schools (because their dc go to the same schools or they’ve been to the nativity play there to see dc), know where we live so could probably work it out.

I do have a family member who stalks me, so I am very careful about what information I put out there and my accounts are very tightly locked down. I don’t have any randoms. Followers are my trusted friends. If you can’t trust your childhood friend of 30 years, who the hell can you trust?

Fwiw, I know two convicted paedophiles. Obviously, they are not people I have any contact with and they have no contact with my children, but I know them (partners of family members). They don’t have social media and the children they abused, they didn’t contact them or abuse them online. They did it the old fashioned way. Grooming them and their parents during ordinary family gatherings, Christmas, birthday parties, sleepovers. The sort of things no one would be alarmed about inviting a friendly uncle to. No stranger danger. Absolutely the sort of abuse that happened in the home right under everyone’s noses.

Personally, I don’t post back to school photos of my dc on social media. I’m too lazy. But I wouldn’t have any concerns about doing it either.

opencecilgee · 03/09/2025 22:05

I don’t think there’s a risk but wish they would bore off

i sent back to school photos to my family and one close friend

nobody else gives a shit do they

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 03/09/2025 21:47

I’m not sure that knowing that a child called “Johnny” goes to Park View High (made up) is going to give a paedophile any chances they wouldn’t already have.

Posting the picture to a private account is very unlikely to cause any issues.

User415373 · 03/09/2025 21:45

I'm not really bothered by it. What I am bothered by is the gushing, the little signs, 'I'm not crying you're crying' captions. Someone I know posted a pic of a bunch of flowers and about ten cards with her little boy, loads of presents from the family. I thought it was birthday but it's just his first day in reception!