If you don't want the world to see your kid, don't post him/her on social media

[Food Lady]

My friend posted a funny school assignment on facebook that had her child's name on it, and I shared it because it was funny. I didn't even see the name, but if I had, I can't guarantee I wouldn't have shared it. I would've figured it was ok since it was out there. I get the reasons why someone would not want her child's full name out there, but then why share it in the first place, especially if friends have public pages? Even if someone doesn't actually share it, it will show up in the news feed if it's even commented on or liked. I took it off, of course, but I'm annoyed that I innocently shared and then had to hunt through my newsfeed for a picture of the kid that didn't exist, since it was simply a shot of a piece of paper.

It's getting to the point where I feel I should unfollow most of my friends, and then what good is facebook anyway? More and more fuel for the facebook-burning fire. Every other day I think of deleting my whole account and sticking with twitter. I have very few followers, only 2 of which I know personally, so I post what I want, within reason. (My morals, of course, do limit what I post anyplace on the internet).

[siead_lietrathua]

to be fair, most people have locked down social media. they may share things with their friends, but with the expectation that it can't be seen elsewhere. for example, i have folders with family photos that can only be seen by limited people on my profile, and even if they comment or like it, it won't show up on anyone's feed that is not also in the allowed list. but once people start sharing things, it has the potential to remove it from the controlled level of security.
when you share something that is marked with privacy settings, it has a little thing on the bottom that says, to paraphrase, not everyone will see what you are sharing. so theoretically noone will be able to see it that the OP deosn't want to. but occasionally things glitch.

edit: remember, just because a user is set to public, doesn't mean all their content is. each content item has it's own privacy settings.

[Food Lady]

Yes, I am now remembering that she could set it so friends of friends don't see it. Don't know why she doesn't do that.

[TheHuckster]

Yes, I am now remembering that she could set it so friends of friends don't see it. Don't know why she doesn't do that.

Frankly, Facebook's privacy settings are untrustworthy, tedious, and prone to all sorts of confusion. It's one of the reasons I never use Facebook to share things that I wouldn't feel comfortable sharing with a more general audience, because I don't have much confidence that even if I specify privacy settings on the post or my account they still won't find their way outside of my circle of friends. If I want to share truly private things with a limited audience, there are plenty of alternate methods for that.

[Andara Bledin]

People should never share anything online they don't want random strangers to see.

Because once it's been shared, it no longer belongs to them, it belongs to them and everybody they've shared it with.

Now, if they want to share it with friends, they could just ask that people not share it further. But that would be too much effort when you can just wait till after the fact and yell at them...

[HYHYBT]

Someone who gets that message that some people won't be able to see a post can save and re-upload it anyway, or (what I don't quite know why I'm seeing a lot of people do since it looks worse and is no easier) take a screenshot of it and post that.

The other side is, why so paranoid? It's just a name, one which is surely online somewhere anyway, and one which nothing can really be done with by itself.

[TheHuckster]

The other side is, why so paranoid? It's just a name, one which is surely online somewhere anyway, and one which nothing can really be done with by itself.

It depends on its meme status. Seemingly innocuous images that identify people in one way or another has lead to harassment in the past.

[CriminalMindsRocks]

I'm sorry but if you (general you) are THAT paranoid then you need to not be on the internet at all..In fact, just do the rest of the world a favor & go completely off the grid, get rid of your t.v, your microwave etc etc & go back to 1800's type living so that the rest of us who aren't so paranoid can live in the present time & with all the modern conveniences that such present time affords us.

Sorry, but people who are that paranoid PISS ME OFF

[Kuari]

I used to have a friend who never bothered with the privacy settings on FB and thought nothing of posting pictures of her children, even though we all warned her that anybody could see what she was posting. She thought we were all just being over-cautious.

Until the school notified her that both her children had reported to their teachers that there was some strange man following them to and from school who knew everything about them.

She changed her tune, but she was so pissed off at all of us who kept warning her that she blocked us! I guess the truth of the matter hurt. I just wish it hadn't taken something quite so drastic as this happening for her to finally lock down her FB profile and set her photos to 'friends only', and I am grateful that neither kid was taken or worse.