.JPG)
Parents' "off-line" wisdom is needed to protect children's "on-line" reputations
A digital footprint is the summary of all kinds of data and information posted on-line including text (words), photographs, videos (YouTube), posts made on friends’ Facebook walls, comments on blogs, etc. that can be traced back to an individual. So the more information your child posts in the cyber world, the more data points are available for others to assemble and potentially make life more difficult in the future – depending upon the nature of the data posted.
From a law enforcement perspective, digital footprints can leave children extremely vulnerable. Sergeant John Weaver of the Placer County Sheriff’s office (Roseville, CA), youth services division encourages parents to monitor their child’s use of social networking media. When it comes to information about your child such as age, sex, home address, school, dates and times of sports events, etc., Weaver asks the off-line rhetorical question: “Would you willingly provide this information to a stranger who calls on the phone and asks for it? Then don’t allow it to be posted on the world, wide web.”
And while there has been a lot of publicity about keeping private information off of social network profiles and out of chat rooms, children are still vulnerable and innocent in the on-line world because they lack the off-line world experience and common sense of mature adults. Carolyn Jabs, M.A. offers cogent advice to parents of tech savvy children in her website Growing Up on Line. According to Jabs, even with all the caution, posting something they later regret is becoming a rite of passage for young people in her award-winning article Your Child’s Digital Footprint, wherein she says a “number of stories confirm that young people are missing out on everything from scholarships and internships to jobs and even dates because of something stupid they posted online.” Jabs urges parents to instruct their children about the importance of using privacy tools and to think about their on-line reputations as they are living in the “cyber moment.”
A coalition of governors has formed a very informative website to provide guidance to parents called, iKeepSafe wherein they advise the following:
1. Understand your and your children’s cyber footprints. Conduct periodic Google searches.
2. Make sure than none of the information is inaccurate or hurtful.
3. They recommend Reputation Defender if you need help cleaning up slanderous or undesirable information.
(Ref: 187-e)
Comments