Of course, you’re proud of your kids as they head back to school, and you want to share pictures with everyone on social media. Remember, there are dangerous people online who are trolling for this information.
“Predators, identity thieves, scammers, and stalkers,” warned cyber security expert Adam Levin, host of the What the Hack podcast. His advice: Think before you post.
“Parents are doing some crazy things,” Levin told me. “They’re posting pictures online of their children standing next to a whiteboard, and on the whiteboard they have their name, their age, the school they’re going to, their favorite food, their favorite color, their dog’s name. These are all the pieces of information –think of them as digital breadcrumbs – that can lead someone, a scammer or a hacker, an identity thief, a predator back to your child.”
Levin says you should never post your child’s nickname, school, or teacher’s name, something a predator could use to trick them.
“You have to couple your need to share with your need to care,” Levin said.
