Parent Trap | Today’s TMJ4
Parent Trap | Today’s TMJ4 - Milwaukee, Wisconsin News, Weather, Sports, WTMJ | 4 on your side
Parent Trap
Aaron Diamant
A new web warning for families. More and more parents are getting burned when their kids spill family secrets online.
Sixteen year old Shannon knows the drill: Anything she posts on social networking sites can come back to haunt her when she applies for college or a job.
Now, there’s a new twist to the warning.
"I had no idea that things I post on the internet could come back to hurt my family, not just me," Shannon admits.
Many families are getting hurt according to internet safety expert Parry Aftab.
"I’ve represented a lot of parents who’ve come to me when they have been fired, they’ve been demoted, or they’ve been called on the carpet because of what their kids posted online," Attab said.
Aftab says many teens still don’t get it, that their posts on networking and blogging sites aren’t private.
"I always warn kids never to post anything that parents, principal, predators can’t see. Now, I have to warn them not to post anything that their parents’ boss or anybody in their neighborhood shouldn’t be seeing either," Attab said.
Sgt. Corey MacDonald agrees. He tours the country speaking about internet safety, and says police and employers are watching. They look for, and find, all kinds of dirt.
"Whether we’re talking about dad’s work secrets or problems between mom and dad with their relationship," Sgt. MacDonald said.
We asked him to show us just how easy it is to find incriminating posts. It didn’t take long.
"Not only do I have to live with my nagging mom, my dad does drugs. This person, Tara, says her parents are lazy alcoholics," reads Sgt. MacDonald.
He says it’s not hard for police, or employers, to uncover the identity of teens from the details in their profiles.
"All they have to do is narrow down who this person is that’s posting this. And then, it’s relatively easy to search their name on one of the online search sites and find out who their family is," Sgt. MacDonald explains.
They’re also getting a lot of anonymous tips. Some posts are leading to arrests like the case of a boy who boasted online about his mother buying a keg for his underage friends!
"This is a much bigger problem than people are aware of," Aftab points out.
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