Minor Safety and Privacy

A minor is somebody who is under a certain age that legally separates them from adults. This age may vary from country to country.

You must be at least 16 years old to use KF.Social.

In the ever accelerating age of the Internet, more people are connecting online than ever before. We have very reliable data* that shows minors are:

• Sharing more about themselves online than they did in the past.
• More willing to share more about themselves online than they did in the past.

Recent research has also shown that the peer pressure to join in and share what your friends are sharing has an increased influence on the decisions and choices of minors; they have a 'fear of missing out' and want to feel like they belong. We also know that minors are much more likely to do what their friends are doing online in an effort to fit in with the group.

These are some of the reasons we at KF.Social feel so strongly about the fundamental importance and right to privacy, both online and offline.

What should parents know

Oversharing information online

KF.Social strongly discourages oversharing information about your family, especially information pertaining to your children. This phenomenon has become increasingly common, that is; the overuse of social media and online platforms by parents to share content and information about their children. This includes things like:

• Baby pictures.
• Posts and pictures about births.
• Posts and pictures about children that are often connected to developmental milestones like a child's first words or first steps, a child's first religious ceremony or rite of passage, their first day at preschool or school, etc.
• Children's birthdays.
• Holiday and vacation posts and pictures, whether with family members in a group or not.

Parents also sometimes join groups where they can ask and post about things like:

• Children's health issues.
• Developmental concerns.

Oftentimes, the information and posts are shared in good faith and can even result in positive changes and improvements in the quality of life for both parents and children. These can be due to things like:

• Parents finding and building community.
• Parents receiving support in the form of positive, validating and often helpful feedback.
• Positive interactions and encouraging comments.
• Connecting with other users who are experienced in the issues parents face.
• Connecting with experts who are helping put out high-quality, reliable information.

Such support and interactions can be very valuable for people that don't have the time, resources or options available to them due to their circumstances.

However, caution and good judgement must be exercised or users might put their family at risk, as the information could potentially be abused by online predators, stalkers and other malicious parties for things like

• Data mining
• Kidnappings
• Child grooming
• Sexual exploitation
• Stalking

In the worst of cases, oversharing details online can have real world consequences and ultimately jeopardize the safety of children, who are especially vulnerable individuals.

We recommend:

• Never posting or uploading any pictures of children that are not fully clothed.
• Being extremely judicious and careful of exactly who you are sharing information about you and your family with. This includes:
  • Being highly selective and mindful of the privacy settings of your posts, and comments. This controls who can see posts, photos and comments about your family and children. This can be done by customizing the privacy settings on your post. These settings can also be changed in the Privacy section through your Account Settings.
  • Being highly selective and mindful of sharing personally identifying information about your family or children to groups or pages whose audience and reach you cannot personally control.
  • Periodically going through and editing your friend list.

Oversharing on social media is very often not done with any malicious intent but is rather due to ignorance, unawareness and inexperience. When in doubt, always err on the side of caution and do not share your information.

Awareness and education

To help ensure your children's safety and privacy, begin by educating yourself. The more knowledgeable, experienced and educated you are about online safety and privacy, the better off your children will be. We strongly recommend parents make a deliberate point of sitting down and soberly talking to their children about things like online privacy, common scams on the internet, peer pressure, cyberstalking, cyberbullying and engaging with other people online.

We know that teenagers and minors do not seek help and guidance from their parents and elders primarily out of fear of reprisal, harsh rebukes, punishments, embarrassment and other consequences that may make the matter worse. To this end, research and expert opinion concur; the most effective thing parents should do is to openly tell and sincerely remind their children that coming to them for help will result in understanding, support and discreteness in an effort to tackle the issue and problems at hand.

What should minors know

As minors, a good first step is to realize and understand that minors are disproportionately targeted by malicious parties both offline and online.

Location information

On KF.Social, geotags location sharing for photos is disabled and you can only share your general location (city) in your profile.

KF.Social feels strongly about location information as it is a particularly sensitive piece of information shared online that's exploitable by malicious parties. Common examples of sharing location information that might seem harmless include:

• Logging or tagging the location of a café or restaurant you might be frequenting, even if only for a short period of time.
• Posting plans and details about a current or future holiday or vacation destination.
• Posting updates about an event you might be going to that includes information about its location. Often, these are events like parties, concerts, bar or pub events, rallies, outings with friends, movie or cinema dates or any other public gathering.
• Posting identifying photos of places that you regularly go to.

Always remember that:

• the information you share online can have real life consequences, even if it does not seem that way or you do not intend it to.
• the information you share online can be saved by people who see it, and could possibly affect you in the future, even if it does not seem that way now.

We know that engaging in social media and interacting with people online has a numbing effect on people and lessens the so-called "Stranger Danger" instinct that we would otherwise have in real life. As such, a good rule of thumb to practice is to never do something online that you would not do in real life.