Things to Stop Doing on Facebook

Knowing a child's name makes it much easier to get that child to trust you. When that name is matched to a photo, and is linked to an adult via facebook, it makes it easy for someone to find the child.

"Hi Jimmy, I'm Daddy's friend Bob. Daddy asked me to pick you up and take you and Tyson bowling. Did you have a nice time at Zac's 6th birthday party? That Elmo cake was great, wasn't it? Don't forget to buckle up."

Lots of vague and specific scary things that parents think about. It comes down to limiting information to reduce the risk of information combining into something dangerous where the parts weren't dangerous by themselves.

You have a picture of your kid. You have your kid's name, on the picture or in your profile. Other information in your facebook finally gives a clue about where your kid goes to school.

It's relatively easy to snatch any random kid, although they might kick and scream and call attention to the kidnapper during the act.

It's a little easier to trick a kid into "helping me find my lost puppy."

It's easier still to talk a kid into a car with "Hey Bobby, I'm a friend of your dad. Yeah, your dad Joe Smith. He asked me to come pick you up 'cause he's going to be late."

Just one example, hopefully that doesn't work with most kids but it might with some. The point isn't this specific scenario, it's that when information is combined it becomes completely new information usable in ways you may not have foreseen. Kid snatchers are thinking about it way more than we are. Identity snatchers are thinking about it way more than we are.

I took down all my kid's pictures (actually all my pictures) last week.