00:00It's really important that families and parents and guardians can celebrate these milestone
00:07moments but there's certainly really simple tips like locking down your device settings
00:12and your social media applications to friend only which can make that a safe experience
00:17for your family.
00:18So do privacy settings then guarantee that there are boundaries around who can see these
00:24pictures?
00:26Well my advice is if you are checking your device settings they're set to private only
00:31and obviously your social media applications if they're set to friends only and you regularly
00:35review those friend lists to make sure they're people you absolutely know in person and trust
00:41I think you're eliminating a lot of risk.
00:44Obviously if you find someone in that list you don't know then of course my recommendation
00:48is remove them before posting any images.
00:50What about measures such as blurring the name of the school on the uniforms or on signage
00:56is that a good thing to do?
00:58Yeah so the Australian Federal Police is really recommending a privacy check up for families
01:02so if you're posting any images certainly recommend that you make sure you look in the
01:08background for anything that gives away location like street sign, house number, certainly
01:13blur school logos or pop an emoji over the top of them, certainly don't post with your
01:18child's name and date of birth and don't post your location and check in.
01:23These are really easy action items you can take to help with that online safety piece.
01:27Photos though are pretty innocent looking aren't they?
01:30They're non-explicit so even these can be twisted if they fall into the wrong hands
01:35you're saying?
01:36Yeah well it is an unfortunate reality that we have seen at the AFP-led Australian Senate
01:41Account of Child Exploitation that these innocently shared milestone images can be taken, shared
01:48and altered by online offenders for the purposes of identifying children and parents for grooming
01:53so it's all about being aware and not alarmed and just taking the steps necessary to protect
02:00your online environment like you would your physical environment.
02:03And some people suggest involving kids themselves and asking which photographs they choose to
02:09post or whether they want back to school photographs published at all, what's your view on that?
02:16I think every family unit is different and I think online safety discussions should be
02:21family discussions and should be held regularly to see what children want to share about themselves
02:28and their identity and making sure another factor is if other people are taking pictures
02:33of your children that you're having conversations in this day and age with people to understand
02:39what they might intend doing with those photos and who they might share those photos with
02:43and then who might have access.
02:45I think it's really important to have conversations within your family units around online safety
02:51in general.
Comments