Waco ISD police chief shares tips on keeping your kids safe when sharing first day of school photos

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - Every parent loves to take pictures of their kids on their first day of school, often sharing it on social media for all their friends and family to see.

But as harmless as this seems, it can actually be a safety concern.

In this day and age of social media it’s so easy to share something with thousands of people, which means people have to be more cautious about what they share.

Waco ISD’s Police Chief, Craig Goodman, warns parents about the dangers of first day of school posts and what to avoid.

“You don’t want to put any identifiers on a young child, where someone could call them out to try to befriend them and what have you,” he said.

For example, first day of school signs, as cute as they are, if shared on social media could put a child at risk simply because of how much personal information is on there.

“A predator, you know if they knew the person by name and photograph might take on a role ‘hey mom and dad said for me to come pick you up’. If they knew you by your name, they’re calling you, ‘hey Susie, I’m your uncle Johnny and I was told to come pick you up’. So you just want to be careful about what information goes out there so people can’t identify your student,” Goodman explained.

Things like what grade they’re in, who their teacher is, and what school they go to is all information that could be used to figure out where a kid will be, identify them, and convince others they know them.

According to Goodman, “it’s rare that it happens, but unfortunately in our society there are those who will try to do something like that and that’s what we’re trying to prevent.”

Chief Goodman also explained that even posing in front of your house for a first day of school picture is a risk.

“You don’t want to give any idea of where you might live for example,” Goodman said, “I think obviously where they go to school is going to come across in a lot of photos, but you don’t want to give anything personal that would lead somebody to know who they are.”

But this doesn’t mean you can’t post your kids’ first day of school photos.

Some safer options include making sure your account is private, taking the picture in front of a blank wall, and using a sign that just says happy first day of school.

“Just use common sense and… we all love to share our first day photos, and so I encourage everybody to do so, just be careful about it,” Goodman shared.

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