What advice should I give my students about posting photos and videos on the internet or their mobiles and using webcams?
Increasingly sophisticated digital cameras, camera phones and webcams make it easy to create and share images on the internet and mobiles.
Images certainly bring digital content to life and are, on the whole, positive. But your students need to be aware that any photos or videos they publish now might still be available online for many years to come - it's their "digital footprint”.
They also need to understand that some people are misusing new technologies to make, copy and share photos and videos that are inappropriate, offensive and, in some cases, illegal.
'Think before you post' is the key message.
‘Think before you post’
This short video looks at the “digital footprint” of young people who post photos on the internet.
If your students are publishing photos and videos on their social networking profile and have not set it to 'private', they need to be aware that any internet user could see their images. Furthermore, their friends could tag them in photos or they might be tagged automatically - Facebook uses facial recognition software to make it easier to tag people in photos, for example.
Or, if they circulate them via their mobile phone or email, they should understand that they could end up in anyone's hands.
Whilst they might want to share photos of their birthday party with their friends, they probably wouldn't want complete strangers to see them and be able to comment on them.
Ask your students:
- Would you be embarrassed if your parents saw these photos or videos?
- Would your friends get annoyed if you posted photos or videos of them online without their permission?
- What if the image is still on the internet in a couple of years, would you want a university admissions tutor or a potential employer to be able to access it?
- How would you feel if a stranger saw you like this and made contact with you?
Where older students are concerned, you might be worried about them posting sexually-provocative photos or videos online, as some people might misuse these images. They could copy them, alter them, post them in other places online or pass them on to others by email or text. Or they could try to make contact with your students, potentially with sexual motivation, as a result of seeing the image.
Sexting, where people send sexually explicit messages or images of themselves electronically, appears to be on the increase among teenagers so you need to be aware how to deal with this.
If your students have webcams on their home computer they might be tempted to take part in inappropriate Web chats with people they meet online or to provide inappropriate images of themselves. This constitutes online child abuse and there is a risk that your student could be groomed by someone preparing them for contact and sexual abuse in the real world too.
It's important that you involve your students' parents in discussions about e-safety. When it comes to posting images online, they might not even be aware that their children have access to a digital camera on their mobile or a built-in webcam on their computer.
You can find further information about online grooming here.
If a student is concerned about an image of themselves that someone else has posted on the internet, they can contact their provider who will remove it if it violates their terms of service.
This doesn't include things like unflattering photos, however. If one of your students simply doesn't like an unflattering photo of themselves that someone's posted on a social networking site, they can remove the tag (so it's no longer linked to their profile), remove the friend who tagged the photo (so they're no longer on their friends list) or talk to the person who tagged it and ask them to remove it.
Click here for our tips on privacy and personal safety.