How to protect your child’s privacy ahead of the new school year

Yard signs that celebrate milestones of children who’ve graduated from high school, or will be heading to a specific school or university this fall, may feel great for the family, but Takoma Park police say those feel-good messages may draw attention from people you wouldn’t want having personal information about your loved ones.

Catherine Plevy, the public information manager for the Takoma Park Police Department, says a yard sign with a child’s name or mention of the school they’ve gone to or will be attending gives potential criminals the ability to connect the dots in a variety of ways whether they want to commit identify fraud or physically track a child.

Plevy warns that by having a child’s name and address, a criminal could put together the pieces to commit fraud.

“They could get credit cards, maybe try to get loans,” she said. “To be honest, I received credit card things in the mail for my dog. And I’m like, ‘Well, Mia doesn’t need a credit card, she’s a 4-year-old Border Collie.'”

Plevy said the same kind of precautions should be taken when posting about your child’s activities online.

For those first day of school photos that get posted on social media, if a student is wearing their school T-shirt or hoodie, “Even if you’re sending your little child off to kindergarten for the first day, if they have a T-shirt that has the name of the school and the year they’re going to graduate, just blur out the T-shirts,” she said.

Plevy said the advisory put out by Takoma Park police isn’t intended to “scare anybody or cause harm,” but she said it’s a reminder to avoid giving scammers or criminals access to information they shouldn’t have.

She urges parents to talk to their children about their own social media posting: “Teach them about the importance of not sharing personal information with strangers.”

One last thing Plevy urges parents to think about: consent and whether your child would want the attention a yard sign or social media post can bring.

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