Guarding Our Children's Online Safety

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These days, one can be quite the detective and find out almost anything and everything about a person just by typing her name on Google and most especially Facebook. On a daily basis, we are inundated with information and images of people we barely know. Children, without any say in what their parents upload out there about them, are at risk of having their privacy compromised. But online safety must be a top priority for parents.

Most of us, especially during the beginnings of social media, think nothing of posting photos of our children. It’s so fun to “share” with everyone and so thrilling to get those “how cute!” comments and “likes.” Because of this new sharing culture powered by Facebook and other social media platforms, we have become desensitized and nonchalant about the breach on personal boundaries.

Years from now, photos that we have happily “shared” with our virtual friends (because honestly, how many take the time to learn about and tinker with those privacy controls to just make posts visible to those we truly know?) will come back to haunt our children.We don’t know how the information and images we share today will be used by the technology giants of tomorrow. And the truth is, we don’t actually know how people’s online information are being used right now.

Our children will thank us in the future if we take care of their privacy and online safety today. What should we keep sacred and not share with the rest of the world?

To read the rest of my article on Mom Center, including what NOT to share about your kids online, please click here.