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?

And there have been cases where photos of children's faces have been used for abuse photos and passed around, where their faces are imposed on inappropriate images

But that's not specific to back to school photos, someone would use any photo which is obvioulsy the different issue of whether anyone posts any photo online, why would they search out a back to school photo if they are going to only use the head?

I agree OP. Our local police force has just released a social media post about hiding the school logo and not having door numbers visible in photos. There’s a reason they have published this

This is likely to be fiddling whilst Rome burns. Police forces are absolutely overrun with actual digital abuse criminals who are paedophiles with extensive online collections of child abuse who they don't have enough experts to analyse the data, collect it and so on. There has been talk of downgrading people who 'just' have online child abuse of a 'milder' variety because they simply can't process them.

Hiding school badges when children walk daily past god knows who with their school badges on is a non-issue for me. Younger children are accompanied to school, older children are more sensible and already (if you live in a big city) have to navigate around homeless people, drunk people, drug dealing.

Online safety and not believing someone is who they say they are, is very important. I am not personally worried anyone will stalk my children based on a locked down friends only FB account with school photos on. It seems the ideal place to put personal photos, much better than the local paper in terms of ID etc.

I'm on a few fan clubs/ chat groups on FB, and its crazy how many mindless parents and grandparents post these "first day of school" photos in those groups, for hundreds of people to see. And then it turns out that a moderator of a group is a sex offender, or some other unsavoury thing happens. Really people? i understand wanting to put family photos on your own profile, but chat groups?

I agree.
A photo of a child in a named school uniform probably with their name on the photos status or on the page itself with other info like the mothers name and anything else!!

I personally don't have social media and have told an u family to cover the badge IF they post anything ever and my son is in his uniform.

It's not just online safety and grooming - the worse case scenario - that we need to worry about. Has anyone come across security questions like 'what was your first school' or 'what was your first postcode', home town etc etc?? What use will they be any more for that generation when all of their private lives are being put straight out on the internet?

Hi think people need to look a bit closer to home for the predators they’re so afraid of. That would protect our kids ten times more than avoiding posting an off to school pic.

Very few people have the 'follow' option on FB, usually the person has to accept the request to be friends. Unless the person's account is open you won't be able to see their holiday posts

I'm in an open access "parents of dancers" fb group.

Last 6 weeks has all been "little suzie doing splits/leaps/pirouettes on the beach in cyprus". Because it's posted to the group it's public. All I need to do is look at the profile and in most cases it's very very simple to work out where they live, schools, address, pets, and often see inside houses and cars.

Proud parents are often the worst for security. Profile pics (so always open) are often of the kids. They also don't think that a google search will often bring up little suzies dance school too so even if they haven't posted an area on their FB, there are other ways.

Like pp said- so many fall over themselves to post mothers maiden name, month of birth, kids names, pets names on those "fun" quizzes.

“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. ”

Well people are still trackable, but why hand out information? Also now I hope people have more common sense than to answer questions, why would someone be easy to find out about, especially a child?

Horrified that a school is publishing everything, that’s mad.

Car registrations is another people dont block.
I know someone who found out where someone else lived by car registration and location being on on fb. Not my story to tell but it fucked the woman's life up completely.

I kind of agree OP. Only because these same parents would have a shit fit if their teenager posted their name and address on the likes of SnapChat or instagram. Pretty much the same thing.

I wouldn't be concerned about the school badges though, just the address in background.

"Oh hi Sarah, I know your mum - you live at .... do you want a lift home rather than walk in this rain"? far fetched but has happened

YANBU OP.

I have posted a pic of DD’s first day (with her permission). No school logo obvious, and in a bedroom with no indication of address.

In my sons class I have seen youtube videos of primary kids in their school uniform taken by their parents!

coconut it was just an example of what could be done with those photos, clearly it's the same for any put online.

I agree OP. But then I find the general culture of sharing every little thing on social media a little repugnant so I’m completely biased.

I don't put up back to school photos as there are people on my facebook I went to school with but don't know too much about now IRL. My children also ask me not to put their first day back photos up on social media as they find it very cringe!

Yeah it's not something I like seeing. Our local paper asks for photos of kids of their first day back and there are hundreds printed along with full names, I just don't see the point? Same as people posting same pics on fb, some people just put their whole lives on a plate for everyone to see, never understood it.

I agree with OP - there is too much information posted on line (I know, ironic saying that here) - but it's an epidemic. If you're not posting on line you don't "care" - rubbish!

I don't think it bothers me. My dc are all over facebook, linkedIn, twitter, etc. They are older now. We have an unusual surname. They are street wise on the whole.

WhT bothers me more are NHS appointments where at full blast they want your full name, dob, full address etc when there's a queue behind you. When I asked ro write it down I got a terse "and if I type it out wrong, then what you going to do".

Facebook is a choice. Hospital appointments tend not to be.

My concerns are around identity theft.

Yeah. I follow a woman on Instagram (shared interest). Open, public profile. I know her and her partner's names, where they work, kids' names and ages, where they go to school, their address, when they're away on holiday... And this isn't from sleuthing. I feel a bit uneasy, but then I think if I contact her with a warning that sounds weird in itself.

@fotheringhay
^I have a blanket policy of not posting pictures of my dc on social media. A - they're too young to consent, and B - it's showing off.

Realise I'm in the tiny minority there^

Ditto!

@ElspethFlashman lol can't forget about our Linda! haha

If the post is for family and friends, who presumably already know the address and school I don't understand what the problem is. I think it's quite a sweet little tradition. I wouldn't post public pictures of my children, however.

My local paper does this @AChickenCalledDaal, I'm sure parents can decline. I always like to see it, they look very cute.

I can’t quite get over the number of posters saying the photos of school children go in the local paper. I’ve never heard of this in my life. I suppose it might encourage friends and family to go and buy the local paper, so a good marketing strategy. My local paper is way too full of the latest murders, stabbings and robberies to fit in photos of thousands of children starting school.

I can’t quite get over the number of posters saying the photos of school children go in the local paper. I’ve never heard of this in my life.
I think this is common in Scotland. Almost all children go to their local school so anybody could see a child on the street and guess, correctly, which school they are at.