School officials remind parents not to overshare child’s info in back-to-school posts

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. ( WHNT ) — Many parents want to take a photo and post it on social media before students arrive in the classroom for the first day of school.

“I would disadvise against making public social media posts where parents take, you know, the dry-erase board, a chalkboard or whatever, you may have it,” said Steven Greene, the Technology Director for Sheffield City School District.

When posting your child’s first day of school picture this year, leave out personal information like the school, grade and teacher because that could give someone on social media your child’s whereabouts.

“You’re telling the world when you’re making a public post, ‘Here’s my child, here’s their picture, this is where they go to school, this is their teacher’s name.’ This is exactly, unfortunately, where you can find them,” Greene said.

Oversharing students’ back-to-school details can be dangerous with the current rise of online predators.

Greene said if you are going to post, make sure your posts are private. Many social media platform settings default to “public,” so you should look before posting.

“You know, everybody wants to share those moments of their children with their friends and family, but they don’t think about their settings, their privacy and security settings,” said Green. “And a lot of people just post everything publicly.”

The Superintendent of Lawrence County Schools, Dr. Jon Brett Smith, urged everyone to follow these guidelines not only with their child but with any student in the classroom.

“We live in a time where we don’t want to disclose anything that puts a child in danger,” Smith said. “So we ask them not to share their personal child, personal child’s information, or information about any other child.”

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