Parents flooded social media with pictures of their bundles of joy returning to school. However, posting pictures of children online could compromise their security exposing them to paedophiles.
The Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) unit and social media experts warn of the dangers of this practise.
As the school year got underway social media was trending with pictures of little ones in their uniforms with oversized bags while this may seem harmless a word of caution to parents has been issued.
Social media legal consultant Lerato Ntwampe says, “So children’s photos could be used for other reasons than what they were intended to be. So for example they could be used, especially like if kids are small going beyond school uniform kids taking a bath or kids being naked taking pictures of children being naked, those pictures could end up in pornographic sites and it’s actually an infringement in South Africa in terms of the films and publication act.”
General National Head of FCS Bafana Linda says, “Part of the child sexual exploitation includes online and offline. Online that’s where the traffickers also for kidnapping they are also going through to check who can they find. Part of their search areas is online and now you post your children’s pictures with your personal information that gives the addresses and the location where the children can be found and that might pose a threat that your children might be offline trafficked, and offline kidnapped.”
For those wanting to share happy moments online here are some pointers from Lerato Ntwampe:
“Avoid tagged family members or relatives in the images because then that would give the stranger more ammunition in terms of going to the child and saying to the child. I know your sister, I know your cousin this is their name and even maybe showing the child picture of them because they can identify from you tagging them.”
Another tip also is your background.
“So if you’re going to be taking the picture at home and your home maybe is visible and you can see where this home is and the address or something that is similar or familiar and even taking pictures in front of maybe even a school and the name of a school I’ve seen already a lot of pictures on social media today where they take a picture of the name of school or a fence or taking pictures in front of the school badge, so don’t do that.”
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