To not understand blurring the name of your child’s school out on social media?

[mysic]

Flurry of back to school posts complete with children in branded jumpers, however the schools name is removed (usually with a smiley face over it.) Why?

Assuming your social media is on friends only … what do people think will happen if they know your child is at St Mary’s Primary?

Obviously some parents choose no images, some choose the middle ground of a picture with no text details and some choose to include text details with the picture.

If you want to include the school name, that's your choice, but I think you probably do understand why some parents make different choices.

How do you know all of your friends are safe?

What are they going to do if they aren’t safe?

Right.

But you specifically said that wasn’t what you were asking. You were asking in particular about the uniforms.

They can share photos of your child that photo would then reveal a fairly small area you live in, using images of real children to the create fake images of CSA is becoming more common as well. It also removes the childs right to privacy, they don’t get to decide how many images their parents choose to show with the world.

I think we’re agreeing, unless I’m misunderstanding hugely.

I understand there is an argument about not putting any images out there, or obscuring identity (eg back of the head only) and that’s fine if it’s what people choose to do.

I’m a bit puzzled by putting your child out there (so not THAT cautious!) but blurring the logo of the school. Especially since several people have got the child holding a board up saying who their teacher is, and so on!

It’s up to everyone what they feel comfortable with; I just don’t personally see any inherent danger with Jason I sat next to in Y10 Maths knowing my kids go to Old Road Primary. Even if Jason is a wrongun!

@Simonjt as I’ve said that’s about sharing an image of the child full stop.

Do you not have the plethora of FB posts saying “ignore if I’ve messaged you, I’ve been hacked”?

It’s not impossible the purpose of hacking is to find pictures of kids online… I’m not sure Janet from down the roads account has anything interesting going on so who knows why she’d be targeted by a hacker.

But I think it’s the combination of things you can glean about the child if you see their profile - their name, siblings names, birthdays, parents names, holiday destinations, etc - if you can then locate them with the school it’s easy to convince the kid you know them and to go with you.

But actually I think most people do it just because everyone else does.

Onward sharing which then allows the images to be accessed by people you didn't intend them to be and by AI.

I really don't understand why you are still asking.

Some people aim for total privacy, some aim for a bit of privacy, and some don't aim for any privacy at all. Every parent chooses for themselves.

If you're happy to publish the name of the school your kid goes to that's fine, but the reasons other parents don't have been explained on this thread.

Honestly, I don’t see any reasons specifically about the school. I genuinely don’t see how having your child on social media but no school makes them any safer assuming you’re an ordinary person living an ordinary sort of life and not a celebrity of some sort, even a minor one!

I know of one confirmed story where a mum posted a photo of her daughter achieving an award in dance. Some how this photo, even though the mum's profile was private to only friends, ended up getting to a man who found out what dance school, what class, the times... stalked them and managed to do alot worse after that.
Kindly, you're being naive. People have been married to murderers, or partners who have abused their children and rhey weren't aware. No one, not one person, can safely say that all of their 50 friends are safe. And most people have more than 50 friends on social media.

It’s not always possible to vet all of your friends. Some people have had acquaintances on there dating 15+ years. Most people don’t go through their friends list removing their own secondary school friends for example - who knows who they are / what they’re doing. Also you can’t assume that everyone’s SM is totally private / set to friends only.

I agree with you, OP - I entirely understand posting no photos, but it's such a strange halfway house to post but cover the logo. I noticed a lot of parents from my son's reception class had done this. Without exception they had also joined the school's Facebook page. I don't think it would take Sherlock Holmes to figure out where their kid went...

You haven't been reading the replies then, because I and others have explained why people don't want to name the school.

It is for reasons of privacy, because photos get onward shared. Privacy today and privacy in the future. Privacy from humans and privacy from AI.

You seem not understand what a digital footprint is and why many parents are making different choices about how much they publish.

You can publish everything if you choose to, no one can stop you, so the different approaches from others are not something to worry about. But the reasons are very simple to understand - privacy.

Honestly, I think the majority of people don't really know specifically why they do it. They're just copying other people because they don't want to be accused of not caring about "safeguarding".

You’re being very naive, then. Anyone can take a screenshot of anything you post online, and they can share that anywhere.

I suspect that most people's FB, if someone wanted to work out which school their dc was in, then they'd be able to work it out.

Maybe they've got their workplace - or photos from local events. If a good proportion of their friends are all from the same place then you can probably take a reasonable guess that they may well be, especially if they're tagged going to things together.
Local friends may also have children at the same school, and they may not bother taking the name out. Or have put on the last day of last term: "best wishes to Mrs Fitzgerald who retired from 50 years as head..." which has a good chance of being posted elsewhere with the school name.
You can use the school uniform to help.
By this point if you're determined to use all this, then you can use the local areas to the right uniform to try and find the door on Google Street view.

And you now have the school name and the address.

But honestly, unless you have a mad ex or similar, it is extremely unlikely anyone would bother.
And the mad ex would probably find it easier to find you and follow you to the school and find out that way.

But if you want to hide it I'd suggest that you take a picture of them in a different school uniform (and hope no friends comment "I thought they were going to St Richards...") and change your door every 6 weeks. Only that way can you manage to avoid detection.

And while you're about it, maybe you could consider changing their name frequently. That'll really throw the mad ex off the scent.

I haven’t posted any school pictures, but if I did I would blur the logo. We have an unhinged family member who used to stalk us. If by chance a photo got shared and they came across it then at least it would be harder to find us.

It is a fair point actually. A decade ago a person I'd been friends with for several years was arrested for downloading images of child abuse. We were stunned because it was completely out of the blue and we would never have believed it of him. It was before I had my daughter, but it made me realise that some of these people are very good as masquerading as decent humans and the risk he posed made me feel very sick. I always thought I'd know if I met someone like that. Turns out I was wrong.

It was a big reason why I don't put up any photos of my daughter.

I don’t put my child’s face online at all but even when I used to, I ALWAYS blurred the name of her school out on the school pics. It may seem far fetched to some closed minded people, but some peadophiles have previously been found to target children whose info (and crucially their whereabouts & routine, on an almost daily basis) is easily accessible on social media.

I don't really understand why people post their children online at all. People wouldn't know I have children from my Facebook/Instagram. I think my kids are pictured on their school FB page but I'm not tagged so really just some random kid that blends in with the others.

No I'm working on the basis mine is. My social media friends are people I actually know (who most likely already know where my kids go to school)

I don’t obscure my children or their uniform, but I am very careful about who I add as friends.