The other day something terrible happened to a friend of mine. She was on Facebook and got notifications that someone was tagging pictures she had uploaded of her 12 year old daughter. She clicked on the notification to find the pictures of her daughter elsewhere on Facebook and tagged NOT with her name. It appeared as though they were tagged with ages, not a name. Thankfully this deviant predator was dumb enough to just use her original pictures instead of taking screen shots or she may have NEVER known this happened. Through some quick research she discovered that the account that was tagging these pictures was a Facebook account for someone who was deceased. (One of the MANY reasons I immediately deactivated my moms Facebook account when she passed away). My friend immediately contacted authorities, including the sex crimes unit.
I asked her if she had location services turned off on her phone and had to explain where to look for this. I have since talked to a few more friends who didn’t know how or where to do this. Hence the reason for this post. The problem with having location services on for your camera is that it will put this location on the photo file as metadata. This meta data can be extracted by anyone who knows how and it’s not that complicated.
I have very few pictures of my kids on social media. If it had been up to me I would have posted lots and lots of pictures of my kids. I love my six children. They are beautiful, cute, funny, etc. and I love to share about them with my family and friends. Thankfully, I am married to a man who said he didn’t want me to post pictures of them. Back then it was mainly because we had a false CPS case that took so much out of our joyful family, he didn’t want to risk anything. Going forward I see how this inspiration possibly saved my children from these online predators…I mean because my kids are so CUTE and beautiful! 🙂
To post or not to post pictures of your children online is a very personal choice. While our family’s personal decision has been to steer away from it as much as possible, I can’t say this is the right decision for each family. My hope is that this post will help others who choose to post pictures of their children to do it more safely.
BEST PRACTICES:
- TURN OFF LOCATION SERVICES on your photos!!! For CAMERA it should be on NEVER. Click here to see video instructions!
- Make sure your account is PRIVATE. Although this is not a fail safe as a “friend” or “follower” can slip through that you don’t actually know.
- I always recommend looking at the profile of someone when they friend or follow you.
- If they are suspicious REMOVE & BLOCK them. If your Instagram account is private you will have to approve them before they can see your profile, which is good.
- Even if your account is private your photos will show up in Hashtag searches.
- DO NOT post pictures of your children in their underwear or swimsuits.
- DO NOT post pictures of your baby in just their diaper.
- DO NOT post nude photos of your children.
- NEVER hashtag your child’s full name or use their full name in the post. If someone takes a liking of your child it makes it easier for them to find pictures of them.
WHAT TO BE AWARE OF:
- Instagram is the #1 Social Media app to Groom children
- Creep accounts will follow your’s and your child’s IG
- Creep accounts will DM your children on IG
- We have not delved into pornography, but be aware if you discern to let your chid get an IG account it is a portal to pornography hell.
- Even if their account is private they will get follow requests and just a click on the account to see who it is can expose them to full on hardcore pornography.
- There are tons of BLATANT pedophile accounts on IG
- IG will NOT remove them if there are no nude photos (loads of photos of children in their underwear don’t go against “community standards”)
- Pedophiles will take screenshots of your kids photos and upload them to pedophile forums or the dark web.
- Pedophiles harvest photos of your kids via hashtags.
- Common hashtags they use are #bathtime #toddlerbikini #nakedbabies #childbath #bathchild #bathtimefun #splishsplash #sinkbath #cleanbabies #pottytraining4kids #pottytrainingguide #nappyfree #diaperfree #pottytrainingsuccess #pottytraining #pottytrain
- They will edit your photos and put in naked men, aroused men, etc. Pedophile Detectives recommend
- They may turn your photos into perverted Memes
- Your child’s picture could be all over pedophile forums, sites, etc where people will verbally defile your child and you would never know it.
- Pedos trade and sell these photos of children edited or not.
Again, the point of this post is not to shame anyone who posts pictures of their children online. I hope and pray you find this helpful and it inspires you to go through your posts of your children and remove any posts where your location is attached and remove the hashtags listed above.
