I just wanted to write a quick post to alert every parent out there about a disturbing “feature” that is included in the new smart phones that are on the market. A feature that could be very dangerous for your children.
GPS, Smart Phones and Protecting Your Childs Safety
The fact is that many of the latest phones are tagging each and every picture that is taken with what is called EXIF data. And this EXIF data includes GPS coordinates of where the picture was taken.
This data is literally a road map to your front door that predators can use to track your child.
You can read more about this on Wikipedia here.
Here is what you need to know about EXIF data in the pictures that are on your child’s phone.
First – Unless you turn off the “Geo-Tagging” feature in the cell phone camera settings your pictures will likely be tagged.
Second – Even if your child does not upload the picture to the internet it is easy for hackers and predators to gain access and download the pictures from the phone. At that point they can be viewed by thousands. So not only are the private pictures that your child took posted on the internet, they give any the exact GPS coordinates of your home!
So what can you do as a parent to protect your kids phone from predators?
You need to turn off the GeoTagging feature in your child’s phone. It depends on the model of the phone but this setting can usually be found in the camera settings or under ‘location services’ in the iPhone.
You need to sit down with your kids and let them know that as long as their phone has service the images on that phone are vulnerable to be stolen and pasted all over the internet.
That means that they should never take any kind of photo that compromises them in any way – no pictures to their boyfriend or girlfriend, no pictures of them partying, or doing anything that they would not want their parents or teachers to see.
I have created a special video presentation that will give you more information about this frightening cell phone safety “blackhole” that every parent must watch.
