As social networking sites (Facebook, Myspace and online dating sites) continue to increase in popularity (bringing with them a greater sharing of digital photo’s) and children establishing digital track records at earlier ages (some times before to their own birth), we have included some useful information to keep you and your children safe online.
Point 1:
Most social networking sites do not have proper privacy settings by default and that means the photo’s that you post online are available to Everyone- not just the few select friends you intended to see the pictures.
Tip 1:
Take the time to learn on how to best protect your privacy before posting pictures on your social networking site. Since Facebook (with its’ estimated 500 million active users) is a very popular site, we have posted some steps to protect yourself and/or your children:
From your Facebook page find the Account tab located in the upper right corner and click “Privacy Settings”
Doing so will bring up the following screen that will allow you to limit access to your photo’s, posts, status, etc. to your Friends Only.
We also recommend clicking on the “Customize settings” option and configuring the “Photos and videos I’m tagged in” setting:
and set it to “Only Me”:
By setting this option, you will keep photos that are tagged by other ‘Friends’ from being seen by others in your ‘Friends’ list. You can also organize your Friends and the content of what they can and cannot see by placing them into lists. You can create lists by once again going to the Account tab and this time selecting “Edit Friends”. Once you do so you will have an option to “Create a List” (as shown below):
In addition to modifying your own Privacy Settings it is highly recommend that you have a discussion with your “Friends” about making similar Privacy Settings changes on their sites.
Point 2:
In most cases the photo’s you post online are not only public but they are also permanent and can have legal ramifications.
Tip 2:
As a parent posting pictures of children or if you are a teenager (or younger), a good rule of thumb for posting photo’s is to only post pictures you are comfortable with anyone seeing (parents, teachers, principals, bosses, future employers, even strangers). Avoid posting embarrassing photo’s that can (and inevitably will) come back and damage relationships and haunt you, your friends or your children. Not only are there many stories of employers passing up candidates due to their past online photo’s, but there are also many documented cases where embarrassing photo’s have lead to cyberbullying. Our advice to you is to think of online pictures as digital tattoo’s.
Point 3:
Many digital photo’s contain Geotags. Geotags store the location information of an image file. For example, photo’s taken with an iPhone contain the longitude and latitude coordinates by default. This is an option that needs to be manually disabled. There are many applications out there on the Internet that can read the Geotag details.
Tip 3:
Be wise about posting your photo’s, keeping in mind that it is possible to track the location. It is widely reported that the media and paparazzi are using Geotags to pinpoint celebrities. Likewise, Geotags can be exploited to track children and teens. If you’d like to know more about disabling Geotags on an iPhone you can click here.
Additionally, avoid posting photo’s that directly reveal your location and personal information about yourself. For example, wearing a shirt with your schools names across it, etc.
Point 4:
Many parents think their children are too young to sign-up for social networking sites and do not monitor their kids online activities. The truth is that while some sites do have restrictions (ie. a child needs to be 13 years or older to create a Facebook Profile or MySpace account), these restrictions are not tracked and are virtually impossible to enforce.
Tip 4:
With any relationship, communication is key. Parents need to sit down and have a real conversation with their children concerning all of the risks of posting photo’s online, etc. Studies have found that parents that regularly communicate with their children and what they are up to online have kids who are much more responsible when they’re online.
It is also important to educate yourself and your children on those sites, where photo’s can be uploaded, that are more private than others. For example, Snapfish (private) compared to Flickr (public).
Point 5:
Never tag photo’s with Full Names, a home address (or other location), etc or use a photo caption in the same matter.
Tip 5:
Disclosing personal information under photo’s, within photo’s has to be avoided at all times. | 
