This week and next mark the return to school for kids across Australia, and for many, it will be their first day. It’s a time when many parents will post photos to social media to celebrate the occasion. AFP Commander Helen Schneider is urging parents and caregivers to be vigilant about what they post online and consider who might have access to it.
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00:00It's really important that families and parents and guardians can celebrate these milestone
00:07moments but there's certainly really simple tips like locking down your device settings
00:12and your social media applications to friend only which can make that a safe experience
00:17for your family.
00:18So do privacy settings then guarantee that there are boundaries around who can see these
00:24pictures?
00:26Well my advice is if you are checking your device settings they're set to private only
00:31and obviously your social media applications if they're set to friends only and you regularly
00:35review those friend lists to make sure they're people you absolutely know in person and trust
00:41I think you're eliminating a lot of risk.
00:44Obviously if you find someone in that list you don't know then of course my recommendation
00:48is remove them before posting any images.
00:50What about measures such as blurring the name of the school on the uniforms or on signage
00:56is that a good thing to do?
00:58Yeah so the Australian Federal Police is really recommending a privacy check up for families
01:02so if you're posting any images certainly recommend that you make sure you look in the
01:08background for anything that gives away location like street sign, house number, certainly
01:13blur school logos or pop an emoji over the top of them, certainly don't post with your
01:18child's name and date of birth and don't post your location and check in.
01:23These are really easy action items you can take to help with that online safety piece.
01:27Photos though are pretty innocent looking aren't they?
01:30They're non-explicit so even these can be twisted if they fall into the wrong hands
01:35you're saying?
01:36Yeah well it is an unfortunate reality that we have seen at the AFP-led Australian Senate
01:41Account of Child Exploitation that these innocently shared milestone images can be taken, shared
01:48and altered by online offenders for the purposes of identifying children and parents for grooming
01:53so it's all about being aware and not alarmed and just taking the steps necessary to protect
02:00your online environment like you would your physical environment.
02:03And some people suggest involving kids themselves and asking which photographs they choose to
02:09post or whether they want back to school photographs published at all, what's your view on that?
02:16I think every family unit is different and I think online safety discussions should be
02:21family discussions and should be held regularly to see what children want to share about themselves
02:28and their identity and making sure another factor is if other people are taking pictures
02:33of your children that you're having conversations in this day and age with people to understand
02:39what they might intend doing with those photos and who they might share those photos with
02:43and then who might have access.
02:45I think it's really important to have conversations within your family units around online safety
02:51in general.