Please go to ConnectSafely.org for latest content 12 Apr 2018 1:42 PM (6 years ago)
Safekids.com is now affiliated with ConnectSafely.org, our nonprofit internet safety organization. Please go to ConnectSafely.org for the latest information.
Fake news about ‘Blue Whale’ suicides is dangerous 13 Jul 2017 2:22 PM (7 years ago)
This post first appeared in the Mercury News — the newspaper of Silicon Valley
by Larry Magid
I got a call on Wednesday morning from a Texas radio station about a 15 year-old San Antonio boy who reportedly took his own life as part of the “Blue Whale Challenge.” Although I had heard about the so-called game, I was unfamiliar with the San Antonio case so I did a little digging and found numerous news stories saying that the boy’s parents blame his death on the game, however I did find one story saying that the “San Antonio Police Department has not verified the challenge was a factor” in the boy’s death.
Although I had heard about the so-called game, I was unfamiliar with the San Antonio case so I did a little digging and found numerous news stories saying that the boy’s parents blame his death on the game, however I did find one story saying that the “San Antonio Police Department has not verified the challenge was a factor” in the boy’s death.
While I don’t know all the facts behind this tragic suicide, I have heard from numerous child safety experts who tell me that stories such as “the dangerous game has been linked to at least 130 teen deaths,” as reported in the British tabloid The Sun, are grossly exaggerated. And, it turns out that most of the initial stories about Blue Whale originated as fake news from Russia.
A post by Anne Collier on NetFamilyNews.org quotes an expert from the Bulgarian Safer Internet Center who said that “it is a sensationalist fake started by Russian media back in May 2016,” and that “several Russian politicians already mentioned ‘Western intelligence services’ and ‘Ukrainian nationalists’ as creators of the ‘horrible game’ with the aim to exterminate young Russian generation.”
In the game, according to the BBC “Individuals are said to be given a 50-day set of challenges by an online anonymous “master”. These tasks are said to become increasingly dangerous, from watching horror films all night to self-mutilation and so on.”
In May of this year, Justin Patchin of the Cyberbullying Research Center, wrote, “not a single suicide (nor any harm whatsoever) has been confirmed to be linked to the challenge.” Radio Free Europe reached a similar conclusion in February when it reported, “But while the Russian-language Internet is groaning with profiles of young people playing or seeking to play the game, shocking photographs of self-injury like cutting marked with the game’s hashtags, and purported links to teen suicides, not a single death in Russia or Central Asia has been definitively tied to Blue Whale.”
Fact checking site Snopes.com calls the Blue Whale suicide story “unproven,” saying that it’s “not been found to have directly caused an uptick in young people taking their own lives.”
But I’m still worried because ironically and tragically, those early fake media reports about Blue Whale could morph into a tragic self-fulfilling prophecy for vulnerable youth. The widespread publicity has caused young people to be aware of this challenge and engage in dangerous behavior as well as copy-cat “challenges” like Blue Whale.
“Suicide contagion is real, which is why I’m concerned about it,” Madelyn Gould, a professor of Epidemiology in Psychiatry at Columbia University, told the New York Times. That’s one of the reasons why the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has published media guidelines for journalists who cover suicide.
I agree with Anne Collier’s observation that “misperception (from widespread misinformation) affects behavior – in this particular case, potentially suicidal behavior.” Collier quotes Wesley Perkins, a leading authority on norms research, who wrote “Much if not most of the harm done by negative peer influences occurs through one’s misperception of the norm.” In his 2010 paper, Perkins added, ”This overestimation of problem behavior and the failure of most youth to accurately seesafe,protective, and responsible behavior and attitudes as the norm have harmful consequences — what I call a “reign of error” in adolescent and young adult cultures.”
“Various studies consistently show that positive attitudes and behaviors, though most often the norm among young people in schools and communities, are often not perceived to be the peer norm. Adolescents and young adults tend to believe that risky or problem behaviors and attitudes are most common among peers and think protective responsible action is rare,“ according to the study.
To prove how norms can affect bullying, the researchers created a school campaign with such messages as “Most (4 out of 5) students (at their school) do NOT spread unkind rumors or stories about other students,” and found that once students understood the actual positive peer behavior rather than the perceived bad behavior, they were more likely to practice good behavior.
In today’s media environment, accurate information is more important than ever. The proliferation of “fake news,” not just for political purposes but to spread all sorts of rumors, can easily lead people to believe that harmful behavior is far more “normal” than it actually is. The reality is the overwhelming majority of people – including adolescents – do not go out of their way to harm others or themselves and it’s important that that message be driven home by media, educators, parents and law enforcement. Fake news encourages more harm, while real news about healthy behavior encourages us all to treat ourselves and others with kindness. I recently co-wrote the Parent and Educator Guide to Media Literacy and Fake News.
I don’t know whether “Blue Whale” is real or not, but I do know that unsubstantiated stories, rumors and exaggerations can lead to tragic results.
How to talk with kids about the cyberbullying they see from famous adults 6 Jul 2017 2:21 PM (7 years ago)
Click below to listen to Larry’s interviews with experts quoted in this post
This post first appeared in the San Jose Mercury News
As a columnist and as founder of SafeKids.com and co-founder of ConnectSafely.org, I’ve written and spoken about cyberbullying. My work largely has focused on advising parents on how to talk with their kids about how to treat others online and how to respond if they feel attacked. But that advice is more problematic when powerful people — politicians, media personalities and even the president of the United States, are publicly cyberbullying others. How do you tell your children to behave civilly when people in authority – perhaps people you or they admire – are acting badly?
For the record, the closest thing to an “official” definition of bullying, as posted on the federal government’s StopBullying.gov website is “unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time.” Add technology and you have cyberbullying. And, if you take away “school aged children,” you have the scene that’s been playing out prominently on the national stage since the beginning of the 2016 presidential campaign, including last week’s Twitter storm against both MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski and the video of the anonymous CNN reporter who President Donald Trump was pretending to beat up.
There are also plenty of examples of media personalities who have repeatedly and aggressively made personal attacks against Trump and others. Trump may be the most powerful person in the world, but anyone with a large media platform also has “real or perceived power.”
To get insight, I spoke with some of the country’s leading experts on cyberbullying. All were optimistic that kids can act better than some powerful adults.
“I think we need to give young people a little bit of credit,” said Rosalind Wiseman, founder of Cultures of Dignity and author of “Queen Bees & Wannabes,” which was turned into the movie “Mean Girls.”
“If we talk with them straightforwardly, honestly and factually, the family values you hold dear will come through and the process of doing that will reaffirm what you stand for,” Wiseman said.
It is possible to support someone’s policies while criticizing their behavior, said Wiseman. While saying that Trump “reminds me of every seventh grade boorish kid whose parents don’t him accountable,” she also chides those on the left who “get so upset about how he’s behaving that feeds the notion of him standing up to people who ‘need’ to be put in their place.”
Justin Patchin, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center, said that students are influenced by close adults and are “less likely to be hurtful to others online or off if they think they’re parents would be disappointed by it and if they think their valued teacher or other educators would be hurt by it.”
He advised parents who support Trump’s policies but not his cyberbullying to remind children that “there is a lot of stress on individuals and sometimes we do and say things that we shouldn’t.” He advises parents to separate his political leadership from his personal behavior.
Patti Agatston, president of the International Bullying Prevention Association and a counselor with a student assistance program that serves students in Cobb County, Georgia (where Trump received 47 percent of the vote), said “it’s important to still stress civility,” regardless of your political views. Parents who support Trump’s policies “can say ‘we respect what he’s trying to do with policy, and what he’s trying to do economically,’ but they can also stress that “it’s really important to use our power wisely and treat others with respect and kindness.”
Parents are the most important force when it comes children’s values, said Kerry Gallagher, an educator who works with me as ConnectSafely’s director of K-12 education.
“While our children are looking to adults for guidance, they have to develop their own critical minds. The adults that they’re going to hear from the most in their life is their parents, not Donald Trump or any other famous person, so they need to hear those messages consistently from their parents,” Gallagher said.
None of the experts I spoke with agree with Sarah Huckabee Sanders or Melania Trump’s defense that the president was merely fighting back when he commented on Mika Brzezinski’s appearance after she criticized aspects of his personality.
“People are going to occasionally say things we don’t like about ourselves and our friends,” said Agatston. “The important thing is to help our kids be resilient and understand that sometimes people are going to sing your praises and sometimes they are not, but if you have a good sense of who you are then you don’t need to attack back.”
Politics aside, Trump’s reaction is “a terrible message to send to kids,” said Patchin. “Fighting fire with fire is not a good approach.”
Parents who don’t support Trump’s policies should also think about how they speak with their kids by separating out the personal from the political. It’s fine for parents to point out why they disagree with the president or even argue that he’s not – for whatever reasons – qualified for the office, but critics should avoid personal attacks, insults and body shaming.
I was appalled when I saw numerous inappropriate comments about New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s appearance along with the appropriate ones about his sitting on a state beach while the public was temporarily banned from beaches until the state passed its budget. It’s fine to disagree with his actions, but it’s not OK to make fun of his weight, just as it’s not OK to make fun of the size of the president’s hands or other aspects of his appearance or for Trump to have made fun of Megyn Kelly and Brzezinski along with all personal insults he hurled at his opponents during last year’s presidential primary and general election.
We live in very troubling times, which requires thoughtful action on multiple fronts. But it also requires that we “teach our children well,” not only because it’s the right thing to do but because it won’t be long before their generation will be leading our country.
Google’s new ‘Be Internet Awesome’ is a fun way for kids to learn to make smart online decisions 6 Jun 2017 9:17 AM (7 years ago)
Lecturing kids about internet safety has never been a good strategy. Conversations help, but engaging children in ways that are fun can have a much bigger impact. That’s why ConnectSafely is proud to partner with Google on its new Be Internet Awesome program, a fun way to help kids learn about internet safety, privacy and security. Other Be Internet Awesome partners are the Family Online Safety Institute and the Internet Keep Safe Coalition.
The game takes children to Interland, a magical place brimming with “both awesome and blahsome surprises.” Your assignment, “embark on a quest to become a fearless explorer of the online world.”
Interland is made up of Mindful Mountain (share with care), Tower of Treasure, Kind Kingdom, Reality River (don’t fall for fake) and each one of these sections is its own interactive video game aimed at young children. It’s web-based so there is no need to download or install any software.
When I was first briefed about this, folks at Google pointed out that there are very few modern, research-based and well made resources to educate young children about internet safety. To illustrate this point, they showed me some of the most popular resources out there and, ironically, one of them was called Online Safety Quiz. I laughed because that’s on my site, SafeKids.com and it was created by my son Will Magid when he was 10 years old, based on my 1993 booklet, Child Safety on the Information Highway, published by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Will is now 30, so neither of us feels bad about having our 20-year-old webpage superseded by one that’s a lot more interactive and up-to-date.
Be Internet Awesome is more than just fun and games for kids. There is a curriculum that educators or parents can download as well as a page with some excellent advice that parents can share with their children about the main topics covered in the program:
- Share with Care (Be Internet Smart)
- Don’t Fall for Fake (Be Internet Alert)
- Secure Your Secrets (Be Internet Strong)
- It’s Cool to Be Kind (Be Internet Kind)
- When in Doubt, Talk It Out (Be Internet Brave)
Google’s new resource is an excellent addition to the handful of other great materials for young people including NCMEC’s NetSmartzKids and the National PTA’s SmartTalk, both of which are also ConnectSafely partners.
Together, we can not only be “Internet Awesome,” but help make the internet even more awesome for all of us.
Links:
Description of Be Internet Awesome from Google
ConnectSafely releases free Parent & Educator Guide to Media Literacy & Fake News 9 May 2017 8:41 PM (7 years ago)
You’ve heard about fake news — stories that appear online and in media that are wholly or mostly fake. Sadly, it’s not likely to stop but as parents and educators, we can help stop the spread of fake news but helping our kids recognize it, not believe it and not spread it.
Written by ConnectSafely K-12 Education Director Kerry Gallagher and myself, the Parent & Educator Guide to Media Literacy & Fake News will help children and students become more conscious consumers of information, explaining among other things:
- The difference between fact and opinion in the news
- The difference between mistakes and lies
- How to deal with conflicting facts
- How to teach kids what to do when they see falsehoods shared online
Rather than just deal with the symptoms, the guide encourages adults to teach and model media literacy, critical thinking and emotional intelligence to get to the root causes of why fake news can so easily believed and spread.”
The dual perspective of a educator (Kerry) and a seasoned journalist (myself) helps makes the guide a practical tool for both teachers and parents.
“While we’ll never rid the world of false information, we can help parents and educators immunize young people so that they can become better consumers and creators of accurate information,” said co-author and ConnectSafely CEO Larry Magid.
“I’m proud that this guide includes truly practical tips and strategies that readers can bring to the dinner table or the classroom right away,” said Kerry Gallagher, Director of K-12 Education for ConnectSafely
The guide also includes Top 5 questions about media literacy and fake news and “expert tips” from the National Association for Media Literacy Education and the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.
Read online or download the PDF
How to disable location on your mobile device 3 Nov 2015 8:47 AM (9 years ago)
California Attorney General Kamala Harris’ office has published an information sheet titled Location, Location, Location: Tips on Controlling Mobile Tracking.
The key advice in that sheet, how to disable mobile tracking on Android and iOS (iPhone and iPad) devices, is reposted below. The tip sheet also includes location sharing advice for mobile versions of Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook email.
Also see ConnectSafely’s A Parents’ Guide to Mobile Phones.
Android Phones and Devices:
- Go to Settings, then Permissions, then Location and turn it off.
- When an app asks for access to your location, you can choose to grant it or not.
- To disable geo-tagging of photos, open the camera and then click on the gear icon and set location to “No.” You may have to click the gear icon on several screen layers.
- You can also choose how accurate you want your location reporting to be (with Location services On).
- High accuracy mode uses GPS, WiFi, and cellular networks and provides the highest location accuracy and speed, and uses more battery.
- Battery saving mode uses WiFi and cellular networks to estimate your location, which require less battery. You give up some accuracy and some speed when you select this mode.
- Device only mode uses only GPS and provides less accurate location information, and uses more battery than the battery saving mode. This is the most location privacy protective and provides a degree of accuracy that is fine for many uses.
- To disable location history, go to Google Settings, then Location, then Location History. You can turn Location History off for your device or for your Google Account. You can also delete your entire history or parts of it.
iOS iPhones and iPads (iOS 6 and later):
- Go to Settings, then Privacy, then Location Services. You can turn it off. Alternatively, you can choose which functions and apps to give access to your location.
- To disable geo-tagging of photos, deny location access to the camera, in Location Services.
- To disable location history, go to Settings, then Privacy, then Location Services, then System Services, then Frequent Locations. Deselect Frequent Locations by sliding the tab.
(Source: California Attorney General’s Office)
Controlling mobile apps
Most mobile apps that track location will ask permission. In some cases this is on installation and in others the first time you use the app. Think about whether location is essential to what the app does for you. If it’s a navigation app, for example, than it makes sense for it to know your location. If it’s a flashlight, a game or other app that should be able to function without knowing your location than consider not giving it permission or not using that app.
Also, be aware that some apps will run in the background and can track your location even if you haven’t launched them. In some cases, the only way to stop them from running is to remove them from your device.
Media Literacy Week and the U.S. election process 3 Nov 2015 8:46 AM (9 years ago)
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Click above to listen to Larry Magid’s conversation with Michelle Ciulla Lipkin of the National Association for Media Literacy Education
by Larry Magid
The United States is about to celebrate its first Media Literacy Week (@MediaLiteracyEd) as Canadians have done for the past decade.
While the week is not directly related to the U.S. elections, it does coincide with the early stages of both parties’ primary campaigns, which strikes me as a great time to think about media literacy. Very few of us will have a chance to meet any of the candidates face-to-face so what we know about their records, their platforms and their promises comes from the debates, the sound bites we see, hear and read and the analysis of pundits, spin doctors, commentators and reporters.
The United States inaugural Media Literacy Week takes place as both the Democrats and Republicans start the process of figuring out who will represent them in the general election in November, 2016. But next year’s Media Literacy Week will take place the week before every U.S. citizen aged 18 or older can go to the polls and exercise that precious right to help make that important decision.
Sadly, not everything we hear from the candidates or their supporters and detractors is necessarily the “truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” Even though we are still very early in the campaign season, candidates from both parties have already been shown by fact checkers from sites like Politifact, FactCheck.org and various news organizations to have exaggerated or been simply wrong with some of their facts.
Media literacy in everyday life
Elections are far from the only chance we have to think about media literacy. It’s all around us and affects almost every decision we make ranging from what we buy, how and whether we worship and what we decide to read, watch and listen to. And, in the age of social media, it also affects what we post.
To learn more about this media literacy, I had a conversation with Michelle Cilulla Lipkin, the executive director of the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE). NAMLE’s mission is to “help individuals of all ages develop the habits of inquiry and skills of expression that they need to be critical thinkers, effective communicators and active citizens in today’s world.” You can listen to our entire interview by clicking on the link at the top of this post.
Media literacy has been an essential skill for centuries. There is nothing new about citizens having to sort through everything we hear from authorities and the media to figure out what’s true and what’s important to act on. But one thing that has changed is the nature of media. When I grew up there were three national TV networks and every city had one or two newspapers and maybe a couple of local talk or news radio stations.
Striving for a balanced media diet
Today there are millions of websites and blogs and you don’t need a transmitter or an FCC license to broadcast. That, as Lipkin said in our interview, gives us a lot more options when it comes to what we consume and — for the most part — that’s a good thing. But it also means that we, the consumers of media, have to take more responsibility to distinguish facts from fiction and opinion and put what we consume into proper perspective. We also live during a period where people’s livelihood depends on how many clicks they get or how many people are watching or listening to their programs so there is plenty of incentive to be brash and provocative, sometimes at the expense of truth and rationality. And, with the enormous competition for our attention, electronic media — both online and traditional — are under pressure to “go to press” immediately — often before anyone has the time to check all the facts.
And since fewer of us are watching entire news broadcasts or leafing through newspapers, it’s more important than ever to get a balanced diet of news, opinion and information. The Internet makes it all too easy to live in a bubble and only pay attention to sources that reinforce our own worldview. I like to mix it up and expose myself to a variety of media and opinions to make sure I’m not just hearing one side of an argument or one set of “facts.”
Our personal responsibility as content sharers
Finally — and perhaps most important — ordinary citizens are no longer just media consumers, but media producers. Anyone with a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube account is in a position to produce media. We can even produce our own live broadcasts on Periscope and Meerkat. Even people who don’t think of themselves as “citizen journalists,” really are if they’re using social media to share information or express their opinions.
The fact that we’re all journalists of sorts means that we all have a responsibility to be as accurate and responsible as possible. I’m not holding every teenage Facebook user to the same standards as my colleagues at CBS News and other national media outlets, but I am suggesting that we are all responsible for what comes out of our mouths and our keyboards.
As I argued in a Forbes post, think critically about anything you’re about to post, share or like. If you see an assertion online that you’re inclined to share, take a moment to figure out whether it’s true before passing it on. It’s not hard. In most cases, all you have to do is highlight a little bit of the text with your mouse or pointer, right click and see what comes up in a search engine. If it’s an urban myth or a hoax, there is a good chance that you’ll find a link to the truth on Snopes.com or some other site that tries to shed light on false assertions. Also, consider the source — is it one that’s generally known to be accurate? And see if it’s mentioned in more than one credible place. I’m not saying that reputable news outlets are always right — even professional journalists can make mistakes, especially on breaking and developing stories — but for the most part major news outlets do strive to make sure that their facts are correct so if you see it referenced by multiple legitimate news organizations, there is a reasonable chance that it’s true.
We live during a very exciting time and we’re in the midst of a media revolution that’s just as profound as when Guttenberg invented the printing press in the 15th century. Today, literacy means much more than knowing how to read and write. It’s knowing how to process information, separate fact from fiction and know when and how to act on what we learn. It’s also a time when everyone has the tools not just to consume media but to produce it as well. That gives each one of us a great deal of power and, as Uncle Ben of Spider-Man fame said, “with great power comes great responsibility.”
Congratulations to the National Association for Media Literacy Education on the launch of Media Literacy Week — a time to think about the skills and habits we need to adopt not just for a week, but for our entire lives. And if you want to share what you’re doing for media literacy, use the hashtag #MediaLitWk.
“3 Rs” of Internet safety: Rights, responsibilities and risk management 26 Oct 2015 9:48 AM (9 years ago)
by Larry Magid
Below is a slightly edited version of a talk I gave at a combined middle and high school assembly on October 22, 2015 and below that is the video of the talk itself. My goal was to demystify some of the tired old Internet safety myths and help students understand how to distinguish what are more and less likely risks and manage the risks that do exist. The lecture was also designed to emphasize students rights as well as responsibilities and to explore the importance of media literacy.
[slideshare id=54280556&doc=3rsofinternetsafety-151022203729-lva1-app6891]
Watch the video
Identity theft can hit children too 4 Oct 2015 8:31 PM (9 years ago)
Identify theft can be a serious problem for victims. It can destroy your credit, get you in trouble with the IRS and sometimes even result in your arrest if someone commits a crime in your name. Other consequences, wrote Katie Morell in the book, “Stolen Identity,” include counterfeiting and forgery of documents, stealing medical services in your name and filing tax returns as you so that they can get your refund.
A 2008 study conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 11.7 million people, five percent of all persons age 16 or older in the United States, were victims of identity theft during the two years prior to the survey. That represented a financial loss of more than $17 billion.
As Morell points out in her book, identity theft is nothing new. It’s actually referenced in the book of Genesis in the Bible with the story of Jacob who posed as his brother Esau. Jacob and Esau didn’t have Internet access (the only tablets around at the time were made of stone), which means Esau didn’t have to worry about Jacob using his identity to apply for credit online as has happened to millions of Americans.
One thing that may not be obvious is that children are at risk. Even very young children can be victims of identify theft.
One reason is because most kids have squeaky clean credit ratings. They have probably never taken out credit, which means they have never been late with a payment. Another is that the identify thieves know that the crime can go undetected for many years. Most people periodically check their credit report or take out loans or credit cards or rental applications and if their ID has been stolen, they will probably find out. A child may not find out until he or she applies for a student loan or a credit card, which usually doesn’t happen till they’re nearly 18.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, a child’s social security number can be used to apply for government benefits as well as to open bank and credit card accounts. Identity thieves can also use it to rent a place to live, apply for a loan or set up utility service. The person’s age and description doesn’t travel with the social security number so it’s possible for an adult to get by with a child’s number.
Occasionally, victims get warning signs, such as being turned down for government benefits because they are being paid to another person using the child’s social security number, says the FTC. You may also get a notice from the IRS saying the child didn’t pay income taxes, or that the child’s social security number was used on someone else’s tax return or may hear from a collection agency about bills for products or services your child didn’t order.
The FTC warns parents not to share their child’s social security number “unless you know and trust the other party,” but experts I’ve spoken to from the Identity Theft Resource Center suggest that you can go even further. It’s common for companies and service providers to ask for social security numbers but, in most cases, they don’t really need them. Doctor’s offices, for example, often ask for that information but they don’t need a child’s social security number — not even for credit information — since the child isn’t the one paying the bill. Landlords might ask for social security numbers for everyone living in the unit, but they only need them from the person responsible for paying the rent so they can do a credit check.
And, if you or your child must disclose a social security number, drivers license number or other confidential data, ask how it will be protected. Several years ago, while she was still in her teens, my daughter applied for a job at a coffee shop and was asked to write down her social security number. I was with her when the clerk left her application on the counter for anyone to glance at. I insisted he at least put in the backroom. Ideally it should have been kept in a safe but they really didn’t even need that number until they were ready to hire her or at a point where they needed to do a background check.
There are times when you are asked to type in social security numbers or other identification online but there are very few situations where it’s actually necessary, such as when you’re applying for credit or accessing your credit report.
If you provide it, be sure you’re using a secure connection and avoid doing so from a public WiFi hotspot. Always be sure your operating system and any browser or other software or apps you are using are up-to-date to reduce the chance of a security hole.
Schools typically have a great deal of information about students, so check with school authorities on how they are protecting your child’s data. There are strict federal guidelines outlined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). You’ll find lots more about this in a free booklet I helped write called A Parents Guide to Student Data Privacy atConnectSafely.org/privacy.
Kids also need to be careful about what they post in social media. I’m not suggesting they remain mum. Millions of kids post their picture and what school they go to without experiencing harm. But kids should be aware that pictures of their drivers’ license (as proud as they may be) or any social security or financial data does not belong on social media.