Cape Town — With the new school year starting this week, parents have been urged to not share any pictures of their children to social media, as it may compromise their safety.
Schools are set to reopen on Wednesday, and thousands of learners are expected to start Grade R and Grade 1.
Due to rapid increase in kidnappings, sharing details online and on social media has become a serious concern, The Citizen reported.
Global sites such as Meta and Google have updated their platforms to increase their safety. Meta launched its first youth and safety comic book, #EbaSafeOnline, to encourage online safety, while Google also updated its platforms to provide users with more control and privacy of personal information on search.
According to Adrian Stanford, the Southern Africa chief technology officer at cybersecurity company, ESET, posting photos of children can be a risk to their safety as it might reveal some critical details about them, eNCA reported.
“When you post online, you are effectively removing some elements of privacy from your children’s lives, and it might seem harmless at first, but we never quite know how our children might feel about this in the future,” he said.
They might find the content embarrassing, or it might lead to them being a victim of cyberbullying. There is a lot of bad things that can happen,” Standford said.
He added that it could lead to resentment and might undermine the trust between the children and parents. Stanford also spoke about consent.
“Often, this practice is done without children’s permission. It can be solved by asking for children’s permission, but I think it is a little bit more complicated and nuanced as that when you think that often, we as adults, don’t make the best judgement calls in our own lives,” he added.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
