Staying Safe when Posting about Going Back to School

An example of a back to school social media post giving out too much information. This is about a fictional student. (Courtesy: Marion County Sheriff’s Office)

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- School is back in session across the Tennessee Valley.

Many parents will want to share their child’s excitement on their social media.

You may believe that posting a picture onto your social media is an innocent activity.

However, you don’t know who will end up with those photos.

Assistant Chief for the Chattanooga Police Department, Glenn Scruggs, said, “We’ve had complaints from parents about someone had gotten in possession of photos from their kids.”

These complaints were a result of stalkers obtaining photos from social media posts.

Officials say this time of the year can be a gold mine for those looking for personal information from a back to school post.

One example of how this could look like was posted by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office last week.

In a photo they have a fictional girl named Amanda Campbell who the post says is nine years old and is in the third grade.

You can see all of the information presented on this whiteboard that represents information commonly given out on a back to school media post.

This post says Amanda goes to Whitwell Elementary, has Mrs. Brown, as her teacher, and says her favorite subject is science.

The amount of information given away in this one post can lead a suspicious person right to your door.

Assistant Chief Scruggs said, “When parents post photos of their kids and identify their names, it enables people to be able to reach out to their kids outside of their individual page. To inbox those kids, to send them instant messages.”

In a revised post from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, the only information now given away, is that a girl named Amanda enjoys science.

Taking away all of the personal information from the first post keeps Amanda more secure and harder to trace.

Assistant Chief Scruggs added, “One thing I would look at, is that when you take photos, that your children, you don’t identify where they stay. The photos you snap shouldn’t identify their home address or where they might be the most vulnerable. Don’t take photos that might identify where their bus stop might be, or what path they might take from that bus stop to and from home.”

Assistant Chief Scruggs adds that if you suspect that someone is stalking or harassing your family, do report that to police as quickly as possible.

You can also set your sharing settings on sites such as Facebook to family and close friends as well instead of sharing those posts globally.