The first day of school is often filled with lots of Back to School pictures. While some of us have already started school, many of you haven’t. It seemed like a great time to share with you picture no-nos for bloggers and anyone else who is going to post pictures on the internet. (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc..)
Don’t Share These Back to School Pictures
School Sign in the Picture
If you are posting a picture that features your child standing in front of their school’s sign, you are sharing with someone where your child goes to school. If you are sharing the picture with only family members or friends that know your child goes there, you may feel comfortable with posting it. If you are sharing the picture with the world, then everyone who sees the picture will know where to find your children.
Picture Right Outside the Classroom Door with Teacher’s Name Displayed
Backpacks with Your Children’s Names on Them
This has been a concern mentioned to me by a number of readers. Names on backpacks let everyone know your children’s names or preferred nicknames. Their concern wasn’t just for pictures, but for everyday use.
Location Settings Left On When Taking Pictures
Each device you use to take pictures may give you the option to share the location where your picture was taken. If you don’t think you will ever use this setting you can go settings area of your camera, and turn it off. You may find this setting labeled location services or privacy on most devices.
Most social media sites will ask if you want to share the location or block it. I tend to click on the block when that pop-up comes up!
Home with House Number Displayed
Before School Picture
If you don’t have a camera that takes wonderful early morning pictures, you may want to take First Day pictures right after school when you have better lighting. I tried taking before and after-school pictures of my son. The after-school pictures came out much clearer and prettier than my morning shots. Another bonus was that we weren’t rushing to get in the car and get to school when I took those pictures.
Conclusion
You may read this list of Back to School pictures no-nos and think they are just a little paranoid and over-cautious. I admit that they may be. In this day and age, we just don’t know who is looking at the pictures are posting. There are ways to share pictures with only those you want to see them and many of you may use them. If you do want to share your Back to School pictures online, I hope you will read these Back to School picture no-nos and decide which Back to School pictures will be best for you and your family to share.
Here are some more Back to School ideas you will love:
Back to School Crafts and Books
Wheels on the Bus STEM Activity
Make School Fun with Back to School Printables
Going to School and Coming Home Backpack Checklists
Before School and After School Chore Checklists
Back to School Books to Read with Your Children
The links below are affiliate links.
If I Built a School looks the changes a boy would make to fit what he thinks a school should looks like.
The Kissing Hand is a wonderful books about raccoon who has trouble wanting to leave home and go to school. It shares a heartwarming family Back to School tradition.
Great ideas! Many lots of people wouldn’t think about when snapping a shot!
Common sense but you’d never think about it!
I agree! It’s sometimes easy to forget about things like the school name being on their shirt and such. It’s something I always try to pay attention to so that I don’t share those photos publicly.
Great reminders!! Agreed, you can never be too carefull!!!
Great reminders!! Agreed, you can never be too carefull!!!
I try to be really cautious with this too. I don’t like his school name being out there, or bus number.
This is so, so, SO important, and I often find myself cringing at the things parents include in photos! And don’t get me started on people who check-in on Foursquare at their kids school…
Great reminder! Thanks!
great post! I am always worried about what info people can get from photos. I try real hard to keep those type of things out of them but I am sure i miss stuff. Thanks for the reminder of things to look for!
So smart! A suggestion I have for uniformed kids is to hold their backpacks or lunchboxes in front of their shirts! I’m sad I didn’t get to snap a first day of first grade picture of my daughter this year. I may take a fake one, ha!
So smart! A suggestion I have for uniformed kids is to hold their backpacks or lunchboxes in front of their shirts! I’m sad I didn’t get to snap a first day of first grade picture of my daughter this year. I may take a fake one, ha!
Good idea for lunch box or backpack. However, if the child doesnt have a lunch box in UK, the backpack is an actual book bag with the school logo and name on the front, so it would show even more. But good idea for the others 😉
I agree with all of these! Great tips. Going to share on fb now.
Very great tips! It is totally good to take some of those pictures- just don’t share those ones on-line!
I must be in the minority, but over 80% of the time, our children will be victimized by someone they already know, and trust. So, truly, it feels like this post is more about being alarmist, than actually being helpful and based on crime statistics.
I think giving people you know or don’t know information about your kids isn’t always safe. This post wasn’t meant to be alarmist. It was meant to remind people that when you put information on the internet people you might not want to share it with are going to see it. People get so excited about sharing Back to School pictures that they don’t always run through everything displayed in the picture.
agreed. all my pictures are for my friends only, and I know all the people on my friends list. if you’re such a creeper I need to worry about you knowing what school my kids attend then we wouldn’t be friends…
Great tips to keep in mind when sharing pics! Also, be careful if your child’s name or address is on their backpack — totally didn’t realize my daughter had turned hers to show the front of the backpack when I shared it!
I was very conscious about this stuff today. I also think you want to be careful about only getting photos of your child (not someone elses in the background… unless you know the family well) and watch out for school bags too! I was going to take a photo of my son with his school bag on instagram… but am waiting till I can blur out the name of the school first.
Great reminders for everyone! You just never know these days who is watching. 🙂
Great ideas! Thanks for sharing these safety tips for pics!
I totally agree with all of your points. I am rather paranoid about Internet safety, and my husband is even more so. I always have these tips in mind (except the last one 🙂 while taking pics of my daughter, in a couple of pics I even went on and edited last name, school name, house number, license number, etc.
I always think of those things too, with pictures. But I’ve never thought to post them. Most excellent that you did!
Not paranoid at all! Very thoughtful and probably overlooked often. Thank you.
Good point about the signs and names, etc. You just never know!-Ashley
As a professional photographer, I take these photos of many kids. The parents want “all the memories”. I warn not to post certain ones. When I post them on my Facebook business page or website, I edit out ANY information like school, teacher, etc. To me, it’s for their safety & privacy! I loved this list! Great job! Another thing, is even if kids don’t wear uniforms but you snap pictures of them in a shirt with the school name on it, watch before posting! Many people think. Ohhhh it’s not the first day anymore. But it’s still not safe! Great post!
Great tips – thank you! xo P
Great list of no-nos. I didn’t even THINK of all of these! Not putting your teachers name should be mandatory for sure!
I agree with all of these…esepcially the one about in front of the school sign! That’s very important. Also, I took pictures that morning and the lighting was awful. My daughter was so tired after school though that she wasn’t up for any pictures!
very important tips… i went to post a pic to something and realized his school name was showing… yep, quickly cropped that one out
Good tips, I would add one more. If you take pictures with the camera on your phone, be sure to turn off the GPS. It tags your pictures and anyone can find out where the pic was taken. Many people don’t think about this, but it is on by default. This is true for any pics you may take with your phone.
Those are good points. I agree with Ellen about the GPS feature, many people don’t realize that their phone geotags and tells the world exactly where a photo is taken. I’ve chosen not to share with the world where my kid is going to school either. I think it protects his safety.
very smart post…thanks for sharing. I don’t have the GPS location set on my phone so my pics don’t have that information and I don’t post on Facebook where we have been till after we went. I now won’t post the name of the school!!! thanks again.
http://dinoheromommy.com/
This post is full of very smart advice! Things that I wouldn’t even have thought of to be honest. Thanks so much for sharing!
–Michelle @The MaMade Diaries
These are great tips! Another thing I’ve seen (especially in Kindergarten) is kids that have to wear a nametag on the first day stating who they are, where their school is, and the teacher’s name. I’ve even seen the child’s address on those tags. I actually just got after a teacher friend of mine for posting pictures of her classroom that had the kids’ first and last names displayed in the desks!!
So helpful. Thanks Deirdre!
Smart tips!! Of course, I shared my kid’s pics online!
I would also add those pictures of the kid plus all the info… ie.. bobby Joe age 7 loves art goes to such and such school favorite color is blue likes to ride a bike (that are awesome and I will do one for my daughter when she is in school every year for a school scrapbook maybe) Now dont get me wrong, I love those pictures but I would NEVER post one on fb or any other social site…
As a teacher I would also request to not include other students in the picture where faces are visible. I work with many students in hiding from domestic violence. I had a father find his daughter after seeing her in the background of a picture with the school name. He came to get her and police were called. It was very traumatizing for the student considering she never consented to be in the photo and her mom was always telling her to avoid social media for that exact reason.
I take the shots I want, then use Photoshop to blur or remove things like bus numbers, license plates, or addresses. Can’t be too careful.
I have another one for you:
If you are taking pictures near your vehicle (I often do, since we live in an apartment complex), make sure your license plate isn’t showing. Also, as a courtesy to your neighbors, that theirs is not showing as well.
Read this article which explains geotagging and how complete strangers can tell where ANY photo was taken! http://www.fieldtechnologies.com/stop-gps-data-recorded-in-photos-from-revealing-where-you-live/
My youngest is an upperclassman, and I always was aware of these things. IMHO, BTS photos are best taken at home with nothing to identify where you live. I don’t think you should have other kids in the shot if you’re putting it on social media. You don’t know if some psycho or angry parent will recognize a kid from their back because of a unique item of clothing or backpack. I don’t think this is paranoid at all. It’s common sense, and posting pictures that include other kids without parental permission is wrong.
Thanks! Great tips!
P.S. I wanted to mention that you should have your house number on your house. If you would ever need to call 911, the emergency crews will have a harder time finding your house. My hubby is an EMT and I’ve listened to him complain about how hard it is to know that you are at the right house when people don’t have the house number on the front of their house where it can be easily seen. –Just make sure that you don’t take a picture in front of your house where you can see the house numbers.
One thing you forgot on here… my son nearly got expelled from school for taking photos of him and his friends on the bus and posting them on his Facebook…. DON’T post pictures of your kids if there are other kids in the pictures!
As a teacher it’s nice to make sure you ask if it’s ok to have the picture of us with your child posted on social media. It’s important to protect not only your child but the class, including the teacher. I don’t mind having my picture taken with students but don’t want it floating around the internet without my knowledge or permission either.
Thanks
Great ideas for new parents of school age children. Mine’s in 3rd grade now but even a few of these I never gave much thought to being from a smaller town but in all reality that makes it more risky!!!
Great point, so many things we over look with our kids… it’s thanks to other parents we can keep each other aware of what we may miss. So much to worry about now in age it’s not enough for just one person or even a couple. Thank you for reminding us…we have 3 girls.
People have become overly sharing on social media. .. Safety first means certain levels of privacy are needed
When I went to school all the boys wore overalls.
My son wore overalls for a long time!
These are great ideas if you are silly and dont have a private page with only real friends as “friends”. But im guessing if you dont have a private page… well then not posting your kids school name is the least of your worries.
I think that sometimes friends or grandparents can still share pictures.
That also counts for social media accounts from your own children. In Belgium there was a girl a big one direction fan. She had Instagram and Facebook and every friend request from a ‘ teenager’ that was a one direction fan would be accepted. Within a year she was a big hit in pedophile networks on Internet. The even waited at her school to rake pictures and all here personal pictures in Instagram ciculated the web in pedophile Networks. They even had plans to kidnap here from school because with 11 she was getting to old for there taste to stay a virgin…. 😨 don’t alow social media under the age the sites handle there self!
Wow! That is so scary!
I’m okay with being an alarmist – better safe than sorry.
I worked in banking, and one tbing we told employees was no to display photos of their children, not to give too much information on your chkld, to strangers.
What do you care if people think this is over-the-top, ylur child’s wellbeing is more important than how they perceive you.
God bless.
I think it is all about thinking about what you are sharing!
Thank you for posting this list. It is a good reminder to all of us to be vigilant. I do wonder why parents have their child’s name embroidered on their backpack. There are better & safer ways to help them identify their own bag. Having the child’s name displayed prominently makes it easy for a stranger to begin a conversation & get too close to the child!