Protecting Your Children Online
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| Image courtesy of Clare Bloomfield/Freedigitalphotos.net |
Online security has always been a hot topic to me and now that I have children it’s even more important than ever to me.
I’m staggered at times by the amount of information people put online about themselves. Phone numbers, email addresses, dates of births, home addresses, the list is endless. This sort of information should be kept private and safe at all times, especially when using social media sites.
I’m not against the use of social media. In fact one of my favourite social media sites is Twitter. I love it! It’s easy to use, it’s easy to connect with people and it’s a great place to talk to people about a range of different subjects. Quite often I will tweet a question to my followers either asking about advice on parenting or where to buy the best slow cooker, but how much ‘interacting’ is too much?
In addition to Twitter, I use Facebook. I don’t tend to use it as much as Twitter because to me Facebook serves a different purpose. I use my twitter account to help promote my blog, to follow other bloggers whose blogs I enjoy reading and to join in with some of the chats.
Facebook is more personal to me, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a safer place for me to post more personal information. I have a grand total of 44 friends on Facebook. This is considered relatively low in comparison to most Facebook users.
According to Marketing Charts 18-24 year olds on Facebook boast an average of 510 friends, but the most worrying statistic is that 12-17 year-old Facebook users are close behind, with an average of 506 friends.
When I was aged 12-17 I certainly didn’t have over 500 friends! In fact I don’t think I had over 10 friends! This begs the question, who are these so called ‘friends’?
Of the 44 people that I’m friends with on Facebook most are old school friends and the rest are work colleagues. It amazes me that anyone would accept a friend request from someone they don’t know.
Your ‘friends’ are able to access some, if not all of the personal information you have shared on your Facebook page, but even more scary than that is that they can also view your photos.
I have written previously about my concerns of posting photos online. I post photos and the occasional video of our twins on my Facebook page, safe in the knowledge that only the people I want to view them can do so. I’m also exceptionally careful of the types of photos that I share online.
I would never post a picture of them online where they were wearing a nappy and nothing else, even more so I would never post a picture of them naked online. It saddens me though that some people aren’t fully aware of the dangers that this poses.
By conducting a simple online search I found numerous articles highlighting the dangers:
· Paedophiles stealing parents’ Facebook pictures of their kids to share on sick pages
· The dangers of posting photos online
Dangers of posting baby pictures
I know some of the main stream tabloid newspapers can have a tendency to dramatise and exaggerate stories, but the truth is that posting photos of your children online can put them in danger.
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| Image courtesy of Clare Bloomfield/Freedigitalphotos.net |
People can use your photos for very bad, even criminal purposes, such as those in the first story above.
We all want to protect our children, but think about the following situation:
You’re bathing your child in a bath full of overflowing bubbles. Bath toys are getting thrown about everywhere and your child is having a whale of a time. You take the opportunity to capture this wonderful moment on film and then proceed to upload to it to your instagram, Twitter, Facebook or other social media site. You may not even think about the consequences this could have, but I wonder. Would you show a stranger in the street the same photo?
I thought not.
Having recently read an article from Norton they explain that even photos you may think are harmless could also pose a risk. Their example of posting a photo of a child at school with the name of the school in the background is another reason why you should be extra vigilant in the photos you are uploading.
In addition to sharing photos of your children online, it’s also important not to post their date of birth and other details such as their names online. By sharing this information about your children or even your own date of birth in addition to your home address and other personal information you are giving identity thieves all the information they need to steal your identity.
Another good reason not to share your home address online as I’m sure most of us have probably read or heard on the news, is when children tell all of their Facebook friends that their parents are away for the weekend so they’re making the most of it by having a party.
Slowly this situation spin-balls and after one person comments or likes this status they share it with their friends who then like or share the same status in turn sharing with their friends and so on until you have hundreds of people turning up at your door.
So what can you do to protect your children online?
· Explain the dangers of talking to strangers online – Much in the same way that you would talk to your children about ‘stranger danger’ when out and about it’s important to help your children understand the risks of accepting friend requests from people they don’t know
· Too much information – Check what information your children are sharing on their social media sites and ensure their privacy settings are set up correctly
· Block inappropriate content – There are a number of ways to do this from looking at your computers internet options to buying software to do this for you
· Monitor what websites your child visits – You can review a history of your child’s online viewing simply by clicking on the history button in your web browsers toolbar
· Place your computer in a family area of your home as oppose to their bedroom
In addition to the above tips, a good point of reference for security tips, family resources and videos from internet security advocate, Marian Meritt can be found here.
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