As a parent, I'm concerned about who can see the photos I post on Facebook. In particular, I'm concerned about who can see pictures of my kids. Now that several of my children have their own Facebook accounts, I'm also concerned about the photos they and their friends post, which might make them easy for a predator to find them online.
If you're concerned, too, here are instructions for how to control who can see pictures of your child-as much as Facebook allows. I've taught my kids how to take these steps and told them that they always have to restrict access to their photos.
Set Tagged Photos Privacy Settings
Your child's friends are likely to post photos of your child and tag them. Normally, the tag appears under the photo as a link, and other Facebook user can click the link to go to your child's page-which is exactly what you don't want if you're trying to protect your kid from strangers.
You can't stop people from tagging your child in their own photos. However, you can restrict who can click your their name below the photo to get to your kid's Facebook page. Use the following instructions:
- In the menu bar, click Settings, and then select Privacy Settings.
- On the page that appears, select Profile Information. Scroll down until you see Photos and Videos of Me. Use the settings controls next to it in order to set who can click through to your child's page, when he/she is tagged in a photo. In your child's account, you'll want to set this to Friends of Friends or Only Friends, at least.
Now, only those people who are friends with your child will see a link to click to your child's page. Other people will see your child's name, but not a link. Assuming you've properly set the Search privacy settings for your child, this closes a loophole in the ability of strangers to find your child on Facebook. (If you don't know about the Search privacy settings, I plan to blog about it another time.)
Protect Each Photo Album
When you or your child posts pictures, you add them to an album. You can control who has access to these albums. You'll want to follow these steps logged into your child's account to protect his or her albums. And you'll want to do the same on any albums you or other family members and friends post with pictures of your child. Obviously, this is something you'll need to do on a regular basis.
Learning opportunity: With your child, log into his or her account weekly and use the following procedure to verify that he/she has properly protected all of the albums.
- In Facebook, click your name in the menu bar at the top of the page:
- Then, click the Photos tab. You'll see your photos in the top area, and the photo albums they belong to in the bottom.
- Above the Albums section, click Album Privacy:
- You'll see a list of the photo albums, with privacy controls next to each. You can select Everyone, meaning anyone on Facebook (and possibly outside of Facebook) can see the pictures. Or, you can select Friends of Friends or Only Friends.
- You can also select Custom and use the Edit Custom Settings to restrict access even further. You can enter the names of specific friends who can see the album, enter the names of specific people who can't see it, or enter the name of a List, if you've created one. (If you don't know what Facebook Lists are, I'll blog about it another time.)
Check for Photos Your Child is Tagged In
Finally, you should check to see what photos your child has been tagged in. Again, this is something you'll want to do regularly, and teach your child to do, as well. You'll have to decide whether you want to allow your child to be tagged at all, or whether you want to always remove all tags. You might want to check with the friends or family members who are tagging your child to see what their security settings are for their photos, and then remove tags from those who have low security settings.
Learning opportunity: With your child, log into his or her account weekly and use the following procedure to check the photos he/she is tagged in, and deal with any issues.
From your child's account, click his or her name in the menu bar. Under his or her profile picture to the left, a View Photos of Me link should appear. Click on it.
You'll see all the photos your child has been tagged in. Click on a photo to see the details for it.
At the bottom right, you can see which friend has posted the photo and in which album. This allows you to ask the friend to remove it, or to ask the friend what privacy settings he/she has set for photos.
Note: This is a great opportunity to help your child's friends learn more about privacy settings and implement them, as their parents may not be as tuned in as you are.
In the lower left, there's a link remove tag. Click it to remove the tag from this photo. If you don't want your child tagged anywhere, so his or her name doesn't appear with any pictures, you'll need to check for tags regularly and remove them every time they appear.
Those are the basic steps I know of to protect your child in photos, from being easily discovered and accessed on Facebook. If you know of any others, pass 'em on!
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