Are Back To School Pictures Putting Too Much Information On The Internet?

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Back to school pictures have become a rite of passage for students and their families.

One local school district even incentivized the distribution of those pictures online by offering prizes. But an online safety analyst is suggesting pressing pause on the practice.

Thomas Dodson is a family internet safety expert.

"For a lot of parents, there's a disconnect," Dodson said. "My big thing is trying to get moms and dads involved in the digital lives of their kids. Trying to get them to parent online just like they would offline."

When he saw that the San Juan Unified School District was offering prizes for back to school pictures submitted by parents and posted on their Facebook page, he immediately raised a red flag.

"What really disturbed me about the pictures is the detail that was included in some of these. You had small children with their age, their birth date, their height, their weight," Dodson said.

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Even though there isn't a last name in the photo, there is the name of a teacher in many of these photos. If someone really wanted to, they could look up that teacher's name and head right to the school.

"Why put it there? Why tempt fate?" Dodson said.

What also concerned Dodson was the manner in which so-called winners were selected: via the number of likes.

"If it's strictly tied to the likes on social media, what are we signaling to our children?" he said.

He worries children could be hurt if their pictures don't get as many likes as others, and he's not alone.

"If somebody said a negative comment and the kid would see it, that would be really hard as well," Brenda Chessher said.

While some thought the contest was cute, there were just as many like Krystal Rankin, who were appalled by it.

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"I think it's misdirecting them. They are more focused on themselves," Rankin said. "There is too much drama on social media nowadays.. kids doing too much and growing up too fast."

Dodson thinks in this case, in particular, the back to school picture competition could prove more harmful than helpful, and should simply be scrubbed.

School district leaders say this is an exciting day of the year that many wish to share with each other, but they encourage parents to discuss personal safety with students.

"Contest winners are determined by the number of engagements generated simply as a method to encourage participation. However, we are evaluating alternative methods for determining winners in the future," said a district spokesperson.