Warning for parents when posting back-to-school pictures of your kids

PENNSYLVANIA. (WHTM) – With the school year starting, we have a reminder for parents when sharing back-to-school pictures of their kids on social media.

Over the past few years, some parents have been posting first-day-of-school pictures with their child holding a sign.

“These back-to-school photos, they’re super cute,” the Better Business Bureau director of communications and public affairs serving Metro Washington DC and Eastern Pennsylvania Kelsey Coleman said.

But, before you jump on the trend, you want to make sure you are careful about the information you put out there.

“Putting that kind of information online with your child’s name there, the name of their school, their teacher’s name, their grade level. That’s all information that a child may not realize, somebody else knows. And so, it’s important to keep your child safe by keeping that information off of the sign,” said Coleman.

Scammers and predators could use this information to commit identity theft or earn your child’s trust.

“Not to mention sometimes that that kind of personal information can be your password, your security password reminder,” said Coleman.

“I think we have to, you know, be real with ourselves and know that there are, unfortunately, some predators out there who do scour over social media, you know, and they’re looking for any type of information they can to exploit our young individuals,” said York City Police Department Captain Daniel Lentz.

On all your social media platforms you want to check your privacy settings and be mindful of who can see your posts.

You also want to watch out for strange friend requests.

 “Unfortunately, this is the society we live in, and we need to take the necessary precautions to protect ourselves,” said Captain Lentz.

Captain Lentz wants to encourage parents to talk to their kids about strangers or suspicious people.

And if anything happens, even if it seems like nothing, report it to your local law enforcement.

“Because we can follow maybe looking for some surveillance cameras or anything like that or even just putting out a disclaimer to the community saying, hey, we’re getting reports of this,” said Captain Lentz.