Privacy settings

Managing your child's privacy online

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Think before you share

We know many families use social media to share exciting things happening for their whānau such as kids starting school! But it is important to protect the information you and your child share online such as photos in school uniforms. If you’re not careful, people can steal or misuse it.

ThinkUKnow(external link) has some good tips to keep in mind before sharing photos of your child:

Double-check there are no identifying features such as your child’s school uniforms or edit the image to hide/ blur the information.
Make sure your location settings are off and your profile is set to private/friends only. For more information see Privacy settings for online platforms below.
If another person is taking photos of your child, have a discussion around how the photos may be used and how they may be shared.
Keep your child’s personal information including their full name and age private.

Privacy settings

It is important to protect the information you and your child share online. If you’re not careful, people can steal or misuse it.

On social media, both adults and children can share information, pictures, videos and messages. Lots of people can access your child’s information without asking.

Many social media platforms don’t have privacy settings for profile pictures or basic information.

You should:

check the privacy settings of your child’s social media accounts
follow people your children have met in person and unfollow ‘unofficial’ pages
turn off location sharing on social media platforms
think about the content under basic information and what your child’s profile picture is.

Talking to young children about online privacy

Hector’s World(external link)(external link) is a New Zealand made animated educational series by Netsafe that is designed to inspire online safety conversations with primary-aged children both at home and in school.

This episode focuses what personal information is, why it is valuable online and how to take control of the information you share online to be more secure.

Hector's World - Episode 3 - Running A Tight Ship