An Australian Federal Police Facebook post on how to take a safe selfie is going viral with its important message for kids - and their parents - about online safety.
"What's in a selfie?" the post reads. "Spot the difference between the following photos for some hints."
The AFP highlights that the image on the left identifies the boy in the picture, his approximate age, where he goes to school, "and possibly even where he lives."
"ThinkUKnow how to stay safe online?" the AFP cautions, before asking parents to be wary of what they - and their children - are posting online.
Of the photos, which have now been shared over 2,000 times, one commenter pointed out that the photo contains the following identifying information:
- Book has name
- Grade 10 indicates the age
- Parliament house shows he's in Canberra
- After that, emblem on the tie narrows down what school to look for
- Look up schools in the area and looks for matching emblem
"BAM. Your child has a potential stalker. Pretty scary actually," the commenter concludes.
Another added, "Definitely makes you stop and think about the information you may be posting in a 'harmless selfie'"
"There is an old saying, " the AFP writes, "a picture paints a thousand words."
The post comes as earlier this year a detective leading the charge against online child abuse, warned parents that by posting photos of their children online, they're putting them at risk.
"It doesn't matter if you post a photo that you think only your friends can see," said Detective Sargent John Michael. "You've actually lost all control over that image and you then should have no expectations after doing that, of any privacy in relation to that image."
Emphasising the importance of teaching children about cyber-safety, Michael noted, "We stress it all the time, once you post that image, don't think you have any control over it. Because you've lost control the moment you've posted it."
ThinkUKnow, provides further advice for helping keep children safe online:
- Encourage your child to use the most secure privacy settings for their online accounts.
- Look at privacy policies of the sites and applications your child uses.
- Discuss with your child what information should never be shared online.
- Only have people you know and trust as online friend and contacts.
They also highlight the danger of unknowingly revealing personal information through geotagging "the embedding of location data, such as GPS coordinates, in images taken on smartphones and high-end digital cameras."
"When these images are shared online," they warn, "the location data is also shared and can be read by other users to find the location of where the image was taken."
It's an issue other commenters identified on the AFP selfie post. One man writing, "What else is in a selfie? Meta data like EXIF data. This includes info on the camera used, exact date and time, GPS location and more. This means that photos even without your face can be linked to you and your location at a specific time."
When it comes to geotagging, ThinkUKnow offers the following advice:
- Disable geotagging on mobile devices and social media accounts (find out how to do so here)
- Avoid checking in at personal locations, such as your home or other people's houses, school, work or sporting venues
For more information regarding online safety parents can visit ThinkUKnow
Do you post photos of your children online? Has this post made you think twice about what you share online?
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