Almost everyone have Facebook account, and people are using it to show to others what’s been going on in their lives. Everyone is posting pictures, and it seems normal, and even safe, to post pictures of the kids in the family, too.
The most important reason why you shouldn’t do this is because there are people all over the world, who would love to get their hands on your children – anyone’s children, really, but especially cute, adorable ones like your own.
A horrible scenario has happened to many people on Facebook.
A lot of people are making the horrible, tragic mistake, they are allowing someone who they don’t know personally to add them to their Facebook. And when they post something about their children, when they attache some photo, they aren’t thinking about the person they recently added. Actually in this horrible scenario that happens every day, that new ‘friend,’ is really a trafficker in the business of selling children.
They then are saving the photo to their own hard drive and then they’re uploading it to an online catalog of children for sale. Advertising the child for whatever they think they can get, they simply wait until an offer is received. While the trafficker is waiting to be contacted by a buyer for that child, this new Facebook ‘friend’ is trying to get information about where the child is going to be – school, activity outside of school, or even church. Parent are giving this information on Facebook by their posts. When the trafficker feels that he can grab that child without bringing attention to themselves, it’s too late for the parent to change anything. Their child is gone, most likely forever. There are buyers all over the world who would love to be able to have free rein over your child.
These traffickers are living and working all over the world, and they are selling children for thousands of dollars plus fees. They are selling them to people who will do more than just abuse them. These people don’t want anything good for your child and the horrors that these children live and often die with make the worst and most graphic horror movies pale in comparison.
Warning to all parents don’t post photos and other information that can lead a kidnapper to your child and don’t add people to your Facebook unless you really truly know them. Don’t share information on your Facebook account that will let child traffickers to know where your child live, visit, go to school, participate in activities or anything else. Your child and all children, for that matter, are too precious to lose because of a some friend on Facebook that you don’t know personally.
Even if you know who all of your friends are in real life there is another problem with posting pictures of your children. The problem is that your friends and relatives might share them on their own profile if you post these photos to yours. That is why you should set your privacy settings to private, this is supposed to guarantee that they will not be seen by anyone who is not in your original circle, but with hackers and data thieves, you have no guarantee that this will remain that way.
You can change your privacy setting easily (see the video below). Also, your great aunt and uncle might save the photo of your precious daughter or son to be shared later with their friends. If this happens, you have no control over who will see it if they re-share the photo they’ve saved. You also don’t know what they will post and what information it will contain.
You should always think about your and your child’s safety on the internet. People don’t always intend for the person with the profile to be their intended target. Sometimes, it’s the innocent one who has nothing between them and a pedophile trafficker, except for you and your decisions. Don’t be the next mother who makes this mistake that your child must pay for. Don’t lose your child like the others have.