If you think your child’s privacy settings on Facebook really don’t matter – think again.

The FBI is investigating an incident where pictures of teen girls were taken from Facebook and placed on a pornographic website. The victim’s ages range from 14-17 years old.

The good news is that the photos showed the girls fully clothed – the bad news is that some of their personal information was included on the site. Imagine seeing your child’s photo on a pornographic website with their name and high school posted beside it.  To make matters worse, child pornography was also discovered on theMassachusettsbased web site.

The teens didn’t have their privacy settings configured properly, and Facebook’s design makes it very easy for photos to be downloaded. All you have to do is right click on an image, and you are given the option to save it. Some photo sharing sites disable the right click save option. This may be a slight deterrent to some, but there are still ways for your images to be stolen. Always keep in mind that anything posted on the Internet can come back to haunt you.

Also remember that Timeline cover photos are public, and this can’t be changed. For maximum privacy, don’t upload real photographs of yourself or your family – use clip art, your favorite outdoor scene or another image of some kind.

Authorities are unsure if any laws have been broken, and if anything can be done to get the pictures removed.

Have you done a privacy audit on your child’s Facebook account?

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Recommended Resources

BitDefender Safego is a Facebook application you can install that will scan your News Feed and help keep you safe from scams like this.

PRIVATE WiFi® is a Personal VPN that encrypts everything you send and receive. Don’t access Facebook from a public WiFi hotspot without it.