How to keep kids safe online with back to school posts

SALT LAKE CITY — Many parents and kids are taking to social media to post about heading back to school.  But is this safe? 

IT specialist Earl Foote with Nexus IT said there are people online looking to take advantage of kids with whatever they can find to do it. 

“Ultimately, sadly, there are creeps out there who stock social media, who use it as a tool to execute predatory behavior,” Foote said. 

He says having a public audience can make the problem worse. 

“That places those children, their privacy, their digital footprint […] at great risk,” Foote said.  

Foote suggests taking control of the privacy settings on social media. Whether it’s your kids’ accounts or your own, you can decide who exactly is seeing your posts. 

He says the next most important thing is to keep communicating with your kids about what’s going up on social media and maybe what’s best kept private.

Read more:

• Ransomware criminals are dumping kids’ private files online after school hacks
• Utah company uses AI to catch online predators
• Prosecutors warn parents about online safety after more than 100 predators arrested within the last year
• It’s back to school day for thousands of students across Utah

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