Online Photos – Where are they really?
July 19, 2009
On MySpace and Facebook profiles, users can create albums for photos and videos. The privacy settings on these albums may be configured so that pictures and videos are only accessible to friends. It is really important that privacy settings be secure (private not public) for photos and videos. However, things aren’t always what they seem online. The photos on your child’s profile may actually be stored on a photo-sharing site.
Here are a few of the popular image sharing sites:
- Photobucket.com
- PictureTrail.com
- Picasa.Google.com
- Flickr.com
- YouTube.com
If your child maintains multiple profiles (for example, one on Facebook and one on MySpace), he/she may store pictures on a picture sharing site so that photos feed into the profiles automatically. Managing photos this way allows your child to upload photos/videos to one location and share them in multiple places very easily. While this is a smart management decision, it sometimes leaves even internet savvy kids vulnerable since they may overlook the fact that image-sharing sites need to be configured for privacy. Every site your child has an account on should be configured for privacy.
Action 1: Talk with your child about where they store the images and video files that they create.
Action 2: Check the privacy settings on the photo or video sharing sites that your child uses to make sure they are set to private not public.
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