Social Media Posts and Data Security of Children - Dipesh Dulal

I was compelled to write this blog when I saw a private school of Nepal posted several pictures of pupils' educational tour in Facebook page of the school. My concern is all about social media posts and data protection issues of young ones. Perhaps, I will also make a video on this topic.

Personal Data is directly relevant to personal security. Nepal has been struggling to manage resources for almost everything. In such scenario, protection of younger ones has become more pressing issue- both digitally and physically.

And we have schools run by those who are not literate on data security and/in tandem with personal security of young ones.

Let us see things example wise.

Scenario 1: A schools posts series of photos of educational tour on Facebook posts. The pupils are seen cheering for the group photos. Face of pupils are made public along with the location and real-time of the year. Now, I ask readers of this blog to assess the vulnerability potential of the pupils just because of the post made by the school.

Scenario 2: A school's principal is seen overly fond in wishing the birthday of the students through the bright graphical illustration posted on the Facebook page of the school. There too wide array of personal data is revealed to potentially harmful entity- the name of the pupil, birthday, class and section, name of the school, and location of the school.

There can be several examples of data compromises of Nepal's pupils on the internet. With the advent of artificial intelligence, big data, and the use of the same for corporate interests, we cannot rule out the possibility of use of these personal data for something that may really harm the pupil in the year(s) to come.

Wake up schools, please work on protecting our children and their information online, and elsewhere.