Ad of the Day: Kids for Privacy campaign aims to help kids stay safe from online predators
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and the Child Rescue Coalition has created a campaign with David&Goliath to educate parents about overexposing their kids on social media.
The pro bono campaign uses popular hashtags parents often use when posting innocent pictures of their children, but puts a twist on them by having kids pose with signs saying ‘Privacy Please’ over their faces.
The movement, launching today (April 3), comes from the ‘sharenting’ trend of parents sharing their kids’ pictures on Instagram. In fact, most parents will post 1,500 photos of their child before they turn five. And many post pictures using hashtags like #pottytraining, #nakedkids and #kidsbathing. While this might seem cute and increases likes for parent posts, it overexposes children by showcasing private moments that shouldn’t be shared with a large audience, making them vulnerable to pedophiles and sex offenders. Specifically, the 100-plus hashtags parents used in these situations serve as flags on social media leading predators to pictures of children.
The Child Rescue Coalition (CRC) is a nonprofit organization that enables law enforcement to track, arrest and prosecute child predators – to create a movement that will help kids reclaim their right to online privacy. The campaign hopes to educate parents that what they think are innocent posts can be potentially harmful and that kids need to be protected.
As part of the campaign, David&Goliath also created a 60-second video that is narrated by a child and explains the initiative from their point of view. In addition, D&G created an educational hub on Instagram called @KidsForPrivacy where parents can learn about the dangers of overexposing theirs kids on social media and get tips on how to protect their kids’ privacy online.
People are encouraged to join the @KidsForPrivacy movement by creating their own ‘Privacy Please’ signs and posting images online using hashtags in the takeover.
“It’s time for parents to think twice before they post,” said David Angelo, founder and chairman of D&G. “While parents are naively posting intimate photos and details about their kids on social media, they have no idea how easily these images can be screenshot and downloaded by predators and sex offenders, who can manipulate, misuse and repost them on other sites. We were blown away by CRC’s mission and the technology they’ve created that gives law enforcement access to information that they may not know even exists. Through this movement, we want to raise awareness of this issue and get parents to understand that all kids have the right to privacy online.”
