Parents beware! Strangers are stealing your babies photos on Instagram and posting them as their own. Some instagrammers even portray themselves as virtual adoption agencies, where followers can request babies/kids they’d like to adopt.

This creepy behavior may not be illegal. Often police will do nothing if you file a complaint that someone is copying photos you posted and pretending your kids are theirs. Unless a crime is committed you often have little to no recourse once a creep has digitally kidnapped your kids. The key for parents is prevention.

THINGS YOU CAN DO TO LIMIT YOUR CHILD’S EXPOSURE & PREVENT IMAGES FROM BEING DIGITALLY KIDNAPPED

• Think before you share your child’s photo
• Zap location info from photos
• Turn off location stamping from camera
• Set stronger privacy on social website to limit who sees you children
• Teach your kids not to share without thinking and asking you first

1. BEFORE SHARING YOUR CHILD’S PIC

Before posting your child’s photo online, parents need to ask themselves:

• Who is going to see this?
• Could they do harm to my child?
• Does a pic I’m about to upload contain location details in the file? Our home, school, identifiable sign?

 

2. HOW TO SET PRIVACY BORDERS ON SOCIAL SITES

How to limit who see’s your child’s photo:
Set more privacy boundaries on Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr so that its limited only to people you know.

 

3. HOW TO ZAP LOCATION FROM PHOTOS

Each phone and computer has the ability to remove the location of your photos. Here’s an easy step-by-step guide anyone can follow.

 

4. HOW TO STOP YOUR CAMERA FROM AUTOMATICALLY GIVING LOCATION

Remove your photo’s location before sharing them.