There are many risks involved with using the internet, for both adults and kids alike.
Even children in their birth family home are exposed to a variety of threats, but when you’re dealing with the identity of a foster child, it becomes more complicated when you need to protect their wellbeing and keep their foster life safe from being exposed online.
So, what’s so important about protecting your foster child’s identity when it comes to internet browsing?
There Are Safeguarding Risks
If your foster child is placed with you in order to get away from an abusive former home or birth parents who exposed them to neglect, then there are a lot of safeguarding risks associated with either you or your child’s identity being disclosed online.
If you post anything to do with your family or foster child online that can be recognizable to people who know the child, such as family friends or even their birth parents, you’re still exposing them to risks.
With this in mind, you should think carefully about what both you and your foster child are posting online. What may seem like a happy family snap from the weekend, for example, can be viewed by anyone online if your social media profiles are not set to private.
Information About Your Foster Child’s Home and Location May Be Revealed
Many social media sites may ask for address information that you can make public if you choose to, such as location data for Facebook profiles.
If this is combined with a public name and picture, then birth parents or others associated with the former life the foster child has been moved away from will then be able to identify where your child is located.
Even if you do set location information to private online, any photos you post based at your home location have the potential to reveal information, such as if a landmark is recognizable or maybe even a street name in the background of a photo.
Keeping tabs on what your child is doing online can be difficult, especially if you are a working foster parent who can’t watch what your children are doing online during your employment hours.
If you would rather dedicate your time wholly to your foster child and keep them safe, you can look into allowances from agencies like Orange Grove Foster Care, which means you may not need another income and can therefore stay at home.
Cyberbullying
There will be cruel people out there who will consider being a foster child as something lesser than having a loving birth family.
This can make it more likely that your foster child may be exposed to cyberbullying online if they are publicly speaking about their foster situation. This can also apply to posts you make online, too.
In Conclusion
Every child needs to feel safe online, and every parent should be teaching their child about online safety, but it’s even more paramount for foster parents and foster children.
Their well-being needs to be protected in a greater way if they have been put into foster care under difficult conditions that could see them more vulnerable.