Be careful what you post!!!

Okay was watching the news and saw something for the first time.  I did a search and found out it has been going on for a while (over a year).  It is a channel on YouTube called “I’m Shmacked”

Considering how the internet has become such a big part of our everyday lives, I am surprised that more young people don’t realize the danger of posting what they do online.

This channel focuses of universities/colleges students partying.  These 2 young people decided to travel to different schools and capture the party life.  Sounds innocent enough to some, but as soon as I heard it, I knew what was coming.

These videos and any other videos and / or pictures on Facebook and other social media are a bad thing.  They will be there for a very long time.  Why don’t these people realize that anyone can see them? 

I have always been against showing pictures of children on the internet because of the dangers that are out there.  Of people who search the internet for young people.  I realize the maybe some older people may not realize this, but young adults should, there are programs you can buy that search and notify you of certain things posted anywhere online.

I mean anything.  Phone numbers, names, key words, anything. But you can do just a regular search using names and you would be surprised what you find.  Put in the word pictures and it will search everything it can and produce pictures that have been tagged with that name.  (This is what my niece tried to tell her other aunt [-Boho mom-])  Now if a parent or child posts a school event picture (which includes the schools name) or a picture with street names etc. it is easy for anyone to find out where that child lives.

According to the news it said videos don’t have tags, which is not true, videos can be tagged with names.  So if a young person does something stupid and then makes it worse by posting it with a tag using even their first name only, it can be found.

So, if they post videos and pictures on the internet using tags with names they are there to be found, even years later unless they are removed.  Now there is the problem.  If someone reposts the video or picture by downloading it first, then posting it, it is now at a new location.  How do they remove that one?  I get emails with pictures I will not forward because of the nature of the pictures and they could be embarrassing to the person or family members if they saw them or maybe an employer.  In a lot of cases people are downloading the pictures in the email to view.  Now if they see one they think is funny they may decide to post somewhere else (I do this with funny none people pictures).  Another location that needs to be found to delete.

Even if by some chance you were able to delete all online photos/videos, it is a good possibility that they still exist on a computer somewhere waiting to be re-posted.

New software is always coming out.  You can download pictures from phones or any wireless device without even realizing you are doing it and posting for all to see.  This is really bad for adults who do not know much about software or computers. Some people always say yes when they are using their phone/computer/tablet not realizing they are about to share pictures they didn’t mean too.

Now on the news they didn’t cover everything I did.  They said that these party videos (and pictures) can affect future job applications. They did say the 2 out of 5 employers check applicant’s social media sites to see what they are like, how they live and what they share.  Now you can be sure that number jumped after the news.  It was on an American station but you can be sure this applies to all countries.

Now this applies to things you write as well.  That is why we need to teach the young to be very careful.  Adults also, telling lies, spreading rumors, swearing, all this is there for others, including employers (future schools), to see.

This is why I cannot understand why so many are getting away with bullying people online.  It isn’t hard to prove who has written what.  The only way that there could be a question of who writes what, would be if multiple people use the same computer at the same IP address. That is why passwords need to be private, not shared.  Teach kids never to let anyone know their password.  Never give your password to anyone, and this means adults as well.  Never, ever give your password to someone on the phone or online even if they claim to be a computer technician.   I have actually received this call on my private phone.  I laughed at them, and hung up.  Also if more than one person uses the same computer, make sure they all have their own profile, one only they use, very easy to set up on computers.

Well if have to work today so better get some shut eye.  Be back later.  Hope this has been some help.

Thanks for dropping by!

Alice M

alicem@fortheloveofalicesfamily.com