BCSO detective warns of oversharing with back-to-school posts

Diana Castillo | KOB

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — We’ve all seen those adorable back-to-school posts on social media where kids hold chalkboard signs showing various information.

Information, like the child’s age, grade, school and even teachers. You may want to think twice about posting for everyone to see.

“Anyone can access this personal information,” said Luke Candelaria, a detective with BCSO.

Scammers and even predators can access the information and compromise your family’s safety.

“It places them in this position where they are opening themselves to be victims of crimes that include kidnapping and stalking,” Candelaria said.

We've seen those back-to-school social media posts where kids hold cute chalkboard signs but you may want to beware so you're not oversharing.

If you want to share your child’s milestones online, now may be the time to look at your social media settings. Make sure you know who’s looking at your posts.

If you’re opting out of doing a back-to-school chalkboard post, make sure your surroundings aren’t giving too much away either.

“Don’t include any type of home address anything that would be recognizable to where that home is at. That means the child’s home, any type of teacher’s name, date of birth,” Candelaria said. “I would caution and really ask the parents to ask themselves, ‘How can this affect their child’s future and how can this affect their family’s future?'”

Again, if you’re going to share a post publicly, keep it simple and limit the information you put out there.

KOB 4 hosted a Back-to-School Special with everything you need to know for the upcoming school year. We talked with officials such as:

They discussed what schools are doing to get New Mexico students caught up during the school year. Click here to see those interviews and the full Back-to-School Special.