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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

The BBC reports [bbc.com] on advice posted by Polizei NRW Hagen [facebook.com]:

A German police force has warned parents against posting photographs of their children to Facebook publicly. The pictures could be copied and altered by paedophiles or simply prove embarrassing to the children in later life, Hagen Police said, in a message on their own Facebook page.

Parents were advised to ensure that privacy settings allowed only their Facebook friends to view the photos. The advice has been shared nearly 200,000 times.

[...] Child protection charity the NSPCC said in a statement: "All parents should feel free to enjoy taking photos of their children and sharing them with friends and family. However, we should all be careful when posting photos online. "We know that sex offenders are able to doctor innocent family photos of children, and developments in photo editing software have made this easier. "So if parents do publish photos of their children online, they should take care to ensure that they have checked their privacy settings and are happy about who can see and share them."

The statement added that if parents were worried a photograph of their child had fallen into the wrong hands, they should contact the Internet Watch Foundation, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) or NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000.

Original Submission