ROANOKE, Va. – UPDATE
We’ve all seen the back-to-school pictures.
You know the ones, big smiles, waiting for the bus, with a chalkboard sign telling all of your Facebook friends about the upcoming year.
It may be a cute snapshot at first glance, but as Roanoke City School Resource Officer Richard Goodman tells 10 News, it’s putting your kids at risk.
“We don’t want to give the predators out there any additional information that they might use against you, or your child,” Goodman said.
These pictures may seem harmless, but you’re giving away more information than you may realize.
“When you’re posting pictures of your kids, try not to give all of their personal information out. Their full name, where they go to school,” Goodman said.
“Why is it an issue?” 10 News Reporter Abbie Coleman asked.
“One thing is because predators seek things and look for things like this to make children victims,” Goodman said.
We looked at a ton of back-to-school pictures and made our own sign - to see how it holds up.
“Okay, so it says ‘back to school,’ my name, my grade, and my teacher. What would we need to change on this sign?” Coleman asked.
“So, what we want to change, is we want to take your last name off of it. Even take your grade level and your school name off of it. You don’t want to put your child’s teacher’s name on there. It’s okay to keep what your child wants to be when you grow up,” Goodman said.
“So, really the only things I can keep is my name, Abbie. We don’t want my grade on there, we don’t want my school, we don’t want my teacher, but we can say I want to be a reporter when I grow up, that’s okay.”
We showed Goodman another sign and asked him if it was any safer.
“So, now I have another sign. So we have ‘back to school’, my name is Abbie, my favorite subject, and I want to be a reporter when I grow up. Any issues?” Coleman asked.
“No, that’s fine,” Goodman said.
“So, if we want to make a sign, this is the way to go,” Coleman said.
Goodman says to make sure your kids know never to go with a stranger, even if they seem like they have all of your information.
“If a predator came up and saw your child get off of the school bus and said, ‘Hey, your mother sent me to pick you up after your teacher’s classroom,’ and all of this is because of the information you put out there on social media,” Goodman said.
Goodman also says to make sure not to include your house number in the background of your pictures.
What not to include:
- Indications of where your child goes to school
- Names, logos, the ‘check in’ function on social media, mascots, teacher’s name
- Personal information
- Name, age, height, weight, age, interests
What you can do instead:
- Share general information
- What your child wants to be when they grow up, their favorite school subject
- Double check your social media privacy settings
- Make sure you are sharing to “friends only”
- Text your photo directly to loved ones, instead of sharing online
ORIGINAL STORY
It’s Back-to-School season here at WSLS! And with back-to-school comes the cute back-to-school pictures we all know and love: backpacks and smiles waiting for the bus. But did you know some back-to-school pictures can put your child’s privacy at risk?
We all love the back-to-school pictures with eager students holding up a chalkboard sign saying their name, grade, and what they want to be when they grow up, but these signs can often put too much personal information onto the internet.
Coming up on 10 News at 6, we’ll share why law enforcement across the country is warning against these signs, and the safer alternative you can do instead