AIBU to remind you to be careful with "first day" photos?

[AChickenCalledDaal]

Just seen a friend's "first day at secondary school" photo online. Two happy children, in recognisable school uniform, next to a clearly readable little sign that displays their very distinctive house name and the street number.

AIBU to remind people that there's little point nagging their teenagers about internet safety, if their parents don't follow simple precautions themselves?

Oh, and I can also seen the photo on the children's facebook feeds. So they are visible to "friends of friends", which is a lot of people.

I'm sure a paedo won't crawl through the window tonight.

Perverts see kids heading to school everyday. Leaving their houses, with named school uniforms on. What makes you think seeing a photo on Facebook is going to make them stalk the child?

Surely they know their neighbours kids schools and house numbers etc?

I don't think it's going to make them stalk the child. But I do think it's going to provide the child's home address to anyone that is already taking an unhealthy interest. I completely appreciate that it's a vanishingly small risk, but we tell our children all the time to be careful with what they put out there and I see a lot of parents being careless with the same information.

I’ll be honest, it doesn’t concern me. People can be tracked down anyway. People used to be trackable in the real world so if some weirdo honed in on some schoolgirl he saw in the street, he could easily find out anything about her.

I do think we need to be careful about checking in and covering cameras etc so they can’t be hacked into our houses. And Siri, Alexa I feel is a bit of an unknown. But school photos showing what school you’re in, no more likely to be a problem than just existing in the real world. That is, there is a risk with both.

It was the home address, rather than the school uniform that bothered me.

I don’t think there’s anything to worry about TBH.
Except maybe people don’t lock down their SM. I doubt the pictures are if any interest to anyone at all.

Where I live the new P1 intakes all have their photos in the local paper with their full names. wow, I am gobsmacked!

I actually agree with you OP. While it’s absolutely possible to find people in all sorts of other ways, it baffles me how much private information people put out on the internet. On Facebook, Instagram, even on here there are identifying messages and data that could easily be put together

Me too, Daisypond Does the school have parents' permission to pass on this information?

Totally agree, OP.

My concerns are more with people sharing photographs which have other children in the background when school/parents have made it plain his should not be done — in my DS’s class, there is a child whose birth parents are considered a risk, so everyone is very conscious of this at nativity plays, sports days etc.

Unless you’ve got Facebook open to all, then what’s the risk?

Better to lock down your Facebook altogether. So many people have public profiles open to all - people can only share with friends but don’t/won’t.

In this age, there’s so much information available and collected about us. It would be wise to be more savvy about it - but I don’t think this is a massive issue - I’m more worried about corporate data harvesting.

By corporate data harvesting - I mean companies which are taking all of the data we freely give them and use it to build up a picture of us.

I agree completely with you OP.
Everyone else is just in denial.

I'm frankly shocked how ignorant PPs seem to be about why this is a risk. This kind of information is how online groomers earn the trust of children. They pretend to be a friend of a friend, which of course they must be, because they know what school you go to and where you live. And they assure you that they're a 14 yr old boy at a school in the next town, and meeting up is totally safe and a cool thing to do.

Some of you would do well to watch a few of the videos by CEOPs and the NSPCC, because there are bloody good reasons those organisations warn against posting exactly these kind of photos.

“- I mean companies which are taking all of the data we freely give them and use it to build up a picture of us.”

This is quite literally happening. What do you think the government is using for their facial recognition cameras popping up everywhere?

Meh, local newspaper runs all the reception kids photos with school names. What exactly is going to happen if my husband's Facebook friends and my own Facebook friends see pics of dc and their school? Which paedo cases have been link to this type of photo?

Most abuse is from a close family member or friend so I guess we should all be hermits and minimise that risk but in reality we all make choices we're comfortable with so you do you and stop judging my parenting choices. My dc are safe and loved.

You can't argue with stupid OP, I agree that it is an unnecessary risk. But I also think posting back to school photos on Facebook is unnecessary in any shape or form. No one but family give a shit, so just post any pictures to a family whatsapp group.

Anyone with designs on a child could follow them home from school.

Astonished to learn of the photos and names in the local paper!

I delete way more from Facebook than I post because I think we're all to blasé about this stuff tbh. And my account is as private as can be!

This is quite literally happening. What do you think the government is using for their facial recognition cameras popping up everywhere?

Yes I know, that’s why I’m worried and that’s why I have quite tight controls on my Facebook.

But in terms of the OP - this is information that someone could get just by following your child home. What exactly is the risk of knowing your home address?

I know that it’s a risk for certain individuals who want to hide from dangerous family/friends.

But aside from that - this is a red herring. Let’s be more careful about all of the information we provide to companies and ask what exactly do they need it for.

My granddaughter's primary school sent a welcoming email to parents. In it was a suggested internet safety list. It was suggested that the school logo was covered up with an emoji.

Lots of parents are doing this.

My DDs school used to FB search every pupil and go through concerns to parents on open evenings.

I've known so many grooming cases were the Adult has pretended to be a teenager, helped by information got from FB.

It is better to be safe than sorry.

Can anyone link to a case where a back to school photo has lead to online grooming/kidnap/abuse?

It’s not the paedo aspect that i would worry about.

But I now have their address. I know they have school age children. There will be ipads, phones, game consoles, probably 2 vehicles. I can get a floor plan of the house from right move.

All i need to do is follow the fb account, wait for the holiday posts, or day out, nip round, be in and out with everything valuable with very little risk. I also now know names, kids ages, grab a couple of documents and a bit of online fraud is an option too...