Australians told not to post photos of kids in school uniform and at other locations to stop predators

Experts have revealed how Australian parents can give away every detail about their kids to predators. Listen to the podcast and see their tips.

Australian parents are being warned to avoid posting photos of their children online to promote their first day and week back at school to protect them against paedophiles.

Cyber security expert Kirra Pendergast said in less than 60 seconds, she can find a family’s private life online — and show them exactly how a predator can track a child down.

“I find a very large school in eastern Sydney, which is a girls school, and scroll through until I find a photo of a girl in uniform looking straight at camera and I dive deep into mum’s account and within 60 seconds I know the name of the puppy that she got during Covid. I know one afternoon she walks to her mother’s office, which is not far from the school after she finishes Hip Hop classes,” Ms Pendergast told the Predatory podcast.

The podcast, co-hosted by Madeleine West and Gary Jubelin, exposes the sick underbelly of child sex abuse in Australia, with the hope of stopping the rot and calling for major reforms to protect victim-survivors.

Listen to the podcast

LISTEN TO THE PREDATORY PODCAST

Safe on Social founder Kirra Pendergast. Picture: Supplied

The sentiment was also echoed by Senator Jacqui Lambie on Monday when she told

the Today show that social media was “open slather for paedophiles”.

“I’m going to be very careful so no platform sues me here but some of those platforms out there, I can tell you, they are open slather for paedophiles,” she said.

“There is no doubt about that. I think you need to be really very careful what you’re putting up on your social media.

“They might look beautiful and cute in your own pictures, but when you are sharing them out there, there are some really nasty people around the world and you need to be really careful.”

Senator Jacqui Lambie told parents to think twice before sharing a photo of their children online. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Gary Ramage

Australian Federal Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Hilda Sirec warned that criminals and predators could obtain the photos online or use the context clues such as logos on uniforms and public locations to groom children and parents.

“Everything that relates to your location or even the logo on your school uniform, unfortunately, can be used by these predators out there to try and groom children, and also groom parents and carers out there, to make themselves familiar to them in their lives,” she said.

Ms Sirec added that the AFP had collected “terabytes” of evidence, including victims in their school uniforms.

“Some of these innocent images such as children in school uniforms are making part of their collections,” she said.

Police say images of children in their school uniform can be used by criminals and predators. Picture: iStock

Parents who do want to share photos of their children on their first day of school have been advised to update their privacy settings on social media and limit the people who are able to view the photos.

“Without strong privacy settings, images shared online of their child’s first day at school or other everyday images may end up being seen by unintended audiences,” said Ms Sirec in a statement released by the AFP on Monday.

“We also suggest setting accounts to ‘private’ or ‘friends only’, review your friends or followers and only share images of children with people you know and trust.”

The AFP also advised parents to avoid sharing their location or “checking in” and to ensure background details in photos and videos don’t reveal geographical details.

For more details about the Predatory podcast, go to predatory.com.au

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Originally published as Australians told not to post photos of kids in school uniform and at other locations to stop predators