How to Protect Our Kids Data
[Applause]
i went to a baby shower for a stolen
baby not your average baby
shower but to be fair none of us knew
that the baby was stolen
the story is this a colleague was very
pregnant
and though i no longer worked at the
same place i saw online that she was
expecting and mutual friends explained
that
for several complicated reasons she
would raise the baby alone
and was not telling the father well we
all
met to shower this single mom with gifts
wish her well and take pictures with her
big pregnant belly
it was so fun seeing all my old friends
and
celebrating this miracle for a woman who
never even thought she could have
kids this woman went on to have her nicu
baby
right at the start of the coveted 19
quarantines
so when she was finally released home no
one could visit due to the baby’s
fragile state
but gifts and meals were dropped off and
we all liked the pictures that she
posted online of her sweet baby except
that
there was no baby
this woman had lied for some unsettling
and
still unknown reason there never was a
baby
nor a pregnancy the pregnancy was faked
complete with costumed bellies and the
pictures that we liked
online were ones she had taken from
another woman’s social media account
she cropped out the other mom uploaded
them as her own
and was finally caught by a mutual
friend
now this is a bizarre story
but here’s the thing stealing kids
pictures online
is much more common than we think and it
leads to terrible consequences
now we all grew up in a time when you
put your baby’s footprints in stone
to mark the time when they were so small
that you could hold their little feet in
your hand
these little concrete footprints hung in
our private homes
but now kids have immensely large
digital footprints that are shared sold
and managed before these kids realize
how to set up an
email account we
are in an age of sharing
parents sharing the pictures and details
of their kids lives online
these guardians are releasing the very
personally identifiable information that
we would protect much more closely for
ourselves
think of it your friend’s cousin’s son
on his first day of second grade at
thompson elementary school
here’s his mom a quick click and i can
find her maiden name
his favorite color on his backpack his
best friend’s name
his second grade teacher’s name and with
a few clicks
to link voter registration or public
records i can find out where he lives
and the name of the street he grew up on
have i covered enough security question
answers to make you nervous
now you might think hey no big white van
will pull up to the school and kidnap my
kid by braving
him with his favorite things or giving
him enough personal
info about his parents or his home life
to make him comfortable with a stranger
oh well i agree that is an incredibly
rare thing but it’s the digital
kidnapping that is much more common than
we think
there are countless stories like the one
i shared earlier
pictures are downloaded shared sold for
exploitations and other
unthinkable wrongs i won’t get into the
story of the family that found their
children’s pictures shared to a social
media page for
cute kids and then traced all those same
pictures
to a dark internet child pornography
site
and speaking of the dark web there’s a
dark web intelligence firm called
terbium labs
that released details about how identity
theft perpetuators can buy
an infant’s name date of birth social
security number
and mother’s maiden name in one of their
blogs they write that
an enterprising buyer can find the
remaining details through open source
data sets
and by harvesting the parents
other online presences like social media
accounts
but strangers aren’t always the ones
responsible for crimes against kids
new york university researchers note
that 75 percent of kidnappings
and 90 of all violent crimes against
juveniles are perpetrated
by relatives or acquaintances
perhaps the very people liking your
posts
stop posting online minimize
kids digital footprints
we expect release forms from schools or
organizations
if they’re going to share information
about our kids but we don’t think twice
about social media mommy blogs or
youtube channels
however we’re about to have to face the
consequences of that
facebook started in 2004 and other
platforms have gained popularity since
that means a cohort of people who have
grown
up on a digital platform are about to
turn 18
in 2022. what do they face
unauthorized confessions of limitations
embarrassing facts
and publicized personal data
jenny is bad at math any math tutors in
the area
enrique has a.d.d i am going to blog
about how i raise him
joseph is being bullied at the
such-and-such school ruthie is still
wetting the bed oh what should i do
here’s sammy in the bathtub today her
fourth birthday
nyu researchers know what these future
adults face
their personal info will have been
stored for almost
two decades and that stored info is not
sitting idly
i quote data brokers build profiles
about people
and sell them to advisors spammers
malware distributors
employment agencies and college
admissions
offices sharing a post
about your kid is affecting their future
mental health
financial stakes and yes applications to
work
and to school another ethics issue
arises here what about the parents who
are making
money off of the blogs and posts about
their kids
what are the kids rights to their
digital footprints
stacy b steinberg of the emory law
journal explores this new gray area
in great detail and while some countries
are adopting new rights for children
the issue will certainly come to a head
as these youth born of 2004 and on come
of age
now i work in entertainment so i know
that in at least four
u.s states courts require that 15
of kids earnings in film tv professional
theater
be put into a trust for when they come
of age
all thanks to jackie coogan a 1914
vaudeville star discovered by charlie
chaplin
he became a child star but then at 24
found out his parents had spent the 3
plus
million dollars he had made or 65
million in today’s dollars
leaving him penniless awful
but his legal case enacted the coogan
law for the 15
trust deposits so future child stars
would be insured of at least some of
their earnings when they come of age
but how does this old hollywood formula
translate to the current
entertainment world of social media when
influencers and website channels that
feature
kids make money for the parents
when the forced fame of sharing personal
information is for the parents gain
long before the kids realize the
damaging effects that the internet might
have on them
it should be a human right to enter
adulthood
with a clear digital footprint
we love our kids but the running
commentary on their lives may ruin
their financial and professional futures
think of the people
that are now cancelled because something
was dug up about them in the past
imagine your innocent post of long ago
cost your grown child their job or
imagine finding out your teenager has
been claimed on someone else’s tax
returns for the last 16 years
and you’re just trying to get the fafsa
filled out in time for college
admissions applications
recognize that companies both legitimate
and illegal
are collecting and selling your child’s
data
and use that information to stop
posting online minimize
kids digital footprints
whoa you’re thinking
i’m just posting pictures of my cute
kids so my family can see him grow up
besides i just post harmless stuff
well i hear you if you absolutely
must share your child’s story to the
world then please try the following
to not share personally identifiable
information
look at your posts and your profiles see
if you can answer any of the typical
security questions with them and if you
can
edit or omit them again if you post
about your child
try to fiercely limit your security
settings
and your online’s friend circle to those
that you would let babysit
your child don’t post which school
or neighborhood your child is in or post
major recognizable check-ins like a
certain park
near your house keep your child’s
birthday
age and other factors vague
don’t use your child’s name online use a
pseudonym or call them
little one or some such title
if your child is willing and wants to
run
a youtube channel or be a co-star in
some of your vlog posts
then set aside at least 15 of the
earnings from those posts in a trust for
them
under their name and talk to them
continuously
about being online and what it might
mean for their future
try not to post pictures of your child
online
have their face turned away or blurred
but of course
all phone pictures do contain metadata
finally be that
person if someone takes a picture of
your child or shares information about
them online
tell them to stop and take it down
even if they’re friends even if they’re
family
some may say this is extreme maybe but
this is extremely important for these
future adults
some may think i’m blaming them for
innocently posting about their kids
lives
i’m not this is all new territory for a
lot of us
and some may wonder what i would do if i
were a mother
well i’ll share i am a mother i love
my kid my kid is amazing
and i care about my kids future and my
kid is
so photogenic and yet i’m that person
that says don’t post anything about my
child and i’m a kindergarten teacher
and i care about those kids and i’m a
human so i care about yours
i pass this information on to you now
because we should all be aware
now most of you will hopefully not go to
a baby shower for a stolen baby
setting off this journey of discovery
that i went through but since i did
have that experience i pass this
information on to you now
we must protect our children we must
protect their future
passwords and security question answers
their social relationships their college
and
job applications it’s their right
to not have digital baggage damaging
them before they reach adulthood
how do we do it it’s simple
stop posting pictures and information
about your kids online
support legislation for children’s
rights
and let these kids grow up as we did
with footprints in stone not
online
you