Digital Smarts - A Disturbing Trend – Stealing Kids Photos on Social Media Sites

Posting pictures of your children on your social media accounts might seem innocent enough, and although everyone seems to be doing it, an unsettling trend has developed: strangers are appropriating the images and pretending the children are their own. Stories have emerged of “digitally kidnapped” Facebook and Instagram pictures of children that are being shared by strangers on blogs, websites and on role playing games through Twitter (hashtagged #BabyRP, for Baby Role Play, and #KidRP). Many parents who have experienced this have admitted their privacy settings on Facebook were not set high enough or were out of date. The best advice is to keep track of your privacy settings, and consider using a privacy app, such as KidsLink, that is used to share photos with only the friends and family whom you have approved of to view the images.