Lately, in the news, it's been brought to our attention that Facebook exposed data on about 50 million users to Cambridge Analytica, a political research company. Have you asked yourself how this might have affected your family? Or more specifically, your children?

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As seen on many social media sites, parents often have no problem sharing photos of their families and especially shots of their children. It's a great way for family, friends, and others to see what's going on in our lives. Especially if they live away.

Most parents and grandparents get all excited about their kids and grandkids and go on a photo and video sharing frenzy, which, for the most part, takes place on social media sites like Facebook.

They are calling it "Sharenting" now.

For many, this may seem like harmless fun, but is it really?

Recently, an investigative reporter named Jeff Rossen was on a popular television program and shared how he visited a family with young children on the premise of talking about social media as seen in the video below.

 

What the mother was not aware of was the fact that a cyber safety expert was looking and scrolling through her Facebook page.

It wasn't long and the expert learned the names of her children, her husband, their schools, teachers names, and even their babysitter!

With the advent of 'geotagging', this account takes a very scary turn.

With geotagging, a stalker can find out where these photos were taken. The expert was able to locate precisely where they went, to include their favorite parks and playgrounds.

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When you take this geotagging and place it on top of a new phenomenon called, "digital kidnapping", this can be a disaster and you could find your child's image in places and on sites that you don't want it.

What happens is people share photos of their kids on social media, and then friends, families, acquaintances all share it too, which allows your child's photo to end up in places and in front of people, you would never expect.

These "photonappers", as they've been called, can and do take pleasure in the number of 'likes' and comments they receive. And if that wasn't enough to turn your stomach, there are those who use these photos to partake in creating fantasy lives as well as using them in role-playing games.

They use hashtags on these sites such as, but not limited to #adoptionrp, #orphanrp, and #babyrp.

Please take the poll below and tell us what you think.

Do you think that Parents Share Too Much Information About Their Children On Social Media, which could result in "digital kidnapping?'

 

 

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