To think influencers are putting own family safety at risk?

[MrDarcysMa]

I don't follow many Instagram 'influencers' but a few interiors ones, mainly local.
One local one whose account I enjoy has expressed concern before about intruders/ stalkers. They also just mentioned in their last post about their house backing onto a local landmark. It's near me so out of interest I google mapped it, as I remember them saying they were afraid of stalkers before so wondered how easy it would be to locate it.

Surprisingly I was able to identify their exact house/ address straight away they'd posted so many pics of their house/ garden it was quite clear which one was theirs.

Isn't this crazy risky? I'm just a slightly bored follower on my lunch break- what if I was a potential stalker ? I almost sent them a DM to give them a heads up but realised I might look like a stalker

@SarahAndQuack

But what is the issue, then?

I'm really asking. It's not hard to find out an address most of the time.

I get that pop stars etc. must have issues with it, but if your home is your business (which it is if you're one of those influencers who posts all about your home) then surely yes, people will know where you live. Just as they would if you ran a business out of your study and circulated your business address?

Yes but why would you want someone to know where your children lived/went to school as many of these influencers put out there on public accounts? It just takes one creepy person intent on no good, an why would you risk that? The Hooper family were the worst for the invasion of their children's privacy, but after the mother was outed for anonymous trolling and racism, they seem to not be posting anymore. Which is good news for their children who had no choice about providing content for their parent's accounts.

Which is good news for their children who had no choice about providing content for their parent's accounts.

People who aren't influencers do this all the time on FB. I have "friends" who have thousands of friends, and the kids pictures are plastered all over the place.
Aw don't they look cute in their....
Especially that first day school uniform picture proudly showing off the badge, the. book bag and if you're "lucky" it's outside said school.

The endless oh look at my cute baby with their full name and dob!! Cheers mate I now have mums maiden name, name of hospital. Enough for someone to fake an ID. Changing the year on the newly acquired BC is easy apparently to not look doctored.

with a name you could easily find anyones address thanks to public recrords.

Yes but why would you want someone to know where your children lived/went to school as many of these influencers put out there on public accounts?

I think, as another poster has already said, that there's no particular reason why a creepy person would be any more likely to encounter you on instagram than in real life. It's a sad fact that an awful lot of child abuse happens within a child's immediate circle of family and friends.

I would be much more worried about children themselves posting - that's really scary and people do target children and groom them through internet media.

I guess I just feel that there's a certain judgy attitude to these influencers (who are mostly women, and who are trying to make a living), and it makes my spider senses twitch a bit.

It bothers me when people plaster their kids and info about their kids online. Standing in the playground once I heard a mum say to a small girl “ oh you looked so sweet sleeping in bed this morning” to which little girl (7/8/9?) looked rather bemused and woman said “ your mum put a lovely picture on Facebook” SHOCKING!!!! Absolute breach of your own child’s privacy there. And the problem is that the parents don’t think they’re doing anything wrong. And lots of FB pages are left open so you can see it all without even knowing the person. As far as I’m concerned that’s a serious parenting flaw and totally unacceptable. I have asked my kids in past if they would want me to even share a pic of them on WhatsApp with the family and they refused. It’s up to them, not me. As per a previous post about FB PAGE WHICH WAS MORE THAN A LITTLE DUBIOUS REFERENCING TO CHILDREN, it’s much much to easy for weirdos and paedos and all sorts to get dangerous info and pics from a seemingly innocent parents post.

how many football players have been victim of burglary whilst they were out playing a match - and that's only the ones who reported it to the papers.

You'd think, being paid reasonably well, they should at least have had some security system! Most people will be fine, but I agree, some should be a bit more careful.

Ok so I think I was just particularly interested in his case as this person has spoken a lot on their account about fear of intruders, stalkers, strangers approaching their property - they say this has happened to them before.

Yet I could identify their exact address within a minute by what they'd posted on their insta account over the past few weeks.

*this case not his case

@3cats that is terrifying! Sounds like that attacker was prepared to go to great lengths - imagine how easy it would have been if she'd made her address accessible on social media too.

@MrDarcysMa

Ok so I think I was just particularly interested in his case as this person has spoken a lot on their account about fear of intruders, stalkers, strangers approaching their property - they say this has happened to them before.

Yet I could identify their exact address within a minute by what they'd posted on their insta account over the past few weeks.

I "know" of a few similar people. Constantly talking about being stalked, harassed etc in a variety of ways. They start hiding all these id'ing things like their face for all to see, and they will say things are calming down or worse. and police involvement.

Then it all calms down and after a couple of months, those id'ing pics start to crop up again. And then the stalker etc starts again.

For some it is simply a scam when their "business" is slowing down. Generate some spiel to get the clicks. Oh you poor thing, they broke into your home, how can I help? And the donations pile in and the clicks go up.

And everything goes quiet and it starts again. People say hang on a minute, why do you keep making the same mistakes? And a million reasons follow.

Of course not all are after the money, but with these social influencers wouldn't be the first time!

What I can never understand is why follow these influencers who basically give a glossy idea of their "perfect" life? They are just over-rated adverts for other companies. But I avoid ads as much as possible lol.

Listened to a podcast recently, Katherine Ryan's, where she talked about a kitchen company giving out her address to someone who wanted a similar kitchen to theirs fitting. They told the woman to knock on KR's door and ask to see it. The kitchen was fitted before they moved in, but regardless, I'd call that a data breach.

It seems to be really clear cut that someone else sharing that data is a no-no in our heads, but if we do it ourselves, it's somehow different.

It's part and parcel of being 'famous' though, isn't it? I live in an area with lots of celebrities locally and when they're papped going into/ coming out of their houses it's really easy to see which one it is based on the photos when you know the area. The added security is just a pitfall of the job isn't it? The people I feel sorry for are those who are or become high profile through no fault of their own and have no say in the madness, families of murder victims which garner a lot of attention for example.

It's part and parcel of being 'famous' though, isn't it? I live in an area with lots of celebrities locally and when they're papped going into/ coming out of their houses it's really easy to see which one it is based on the photos when you know the area. The added security is just a pitfall of the job isn't it? The people I feel sorry for are those who are or become high profile through no fault of their own and have no say in the madness, families of murder victims which garner a lot of attention for example.

I think, as another poster has already said, that there's no particular reason why a creepy person would be any more likely to encounter you on instagram than in real life
I think this is an extremely naive view , it would be much easier for a perv to type in a hashtag into Instagram anything like #toddlergirl or #bathtime to bring up many images to look at whenever they wanted than randomly encounter a child in real life.

People who aren't influencers do this all the time on FB. I have "friends" who have thousands of friends, and the kids pictures are plastered all over the place.
But you can (to some degree) control who sees your facebook photos, and they don't usually appear in google searches; but influencer accounts on Instagram are literally open to everyone, and indeed the more people who look the happy the influencer is - but their children have no choice in having their most intimate moments shared which leave a digital footprint forever. Can you imagine if one of these children decides for example to become a secondary school teacher - how will their class take them seriously when they are able to google pictures of them potty training/having a tantrum etc.

@CiebaTree
I agree about searches and settings, search a school or a persons name, something local and they start to pop up. And those bath images are everywhere.

Child abuse as we know doesn't just come from knowing people. Those millions of images found on computers have often been shopped, and tracing these potential victims becomes harder. (I'm a CEOP ambassador and part of the training & updates includes old case info for if we want to use it when training others).

People who aren't influencers do this all the time on FB. I have "friends" who have thousands of friends, and the kids pictures are plastered all over the place

Agreed. I follow a lot of public sewing related IG accounts and a lot of them will share public photos/details of their children, at which point I unfollow. It's a horrible invasion of their privacy.