The end of the school year typically brings with it many moments worth celebrating. Summer birthdays, graduations, Communions just to name a few. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted our usual ways of celebrating these milestones.
Our kids deserve the recognition and in many cases it’s a rite of passage. So congratulations to the 2020 graduates and Happy Bday to all those who have missed out on celebrating like we might have if this virus hadn’t turned our world upside down.
I wish you all the best and hope you can celebrate properly with family and friends when it is safe to do so. In fact, celebrate more because you have overcome obstacles that those before you may not have encountered. You deserve it!
Despite the challenges, we have found many creative ways to celebrate graduations, birthdays and other momentous events, bringing joy to our kids and giving them a sense of normalcy during these strange times. What I’ll call “party parades”, have become quite popular. The concept is simple, if we can’t have a large gathering, bring the party to the honoree – social distancing style. I think that drive by parades are a great way to celebrate when we must be mindful of our in-person contact.
However, I’ve seen a disturbing trend of advertising these celebrations, publicly on Facebook and other social media outlets. In this time of caution, we must be vigilant in protecting our personal information, especially with a huge increase in COVID-related scams proliferating across the internet. If you wouldn’t share your child’s address with a stranger before the pandemic, why would you do it now?
I’ve witnessed parents posting “parade” schedules to encourage participation in some of these events and it’s quite disturbing. The intentions are good, I’m sure, but the fact is that publicly inviting the internet (whomever is lurking on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) invites the risk of complete strangers discovering personal information about your family including your child’s age, address, birth date or where they attend school, among other things that should be kept private or limited to close friends and family members.
Why am I writing this? An adult with good intentions recently posted a schedule of all upcoming celebration “parades” including the name, age, and meeting address for several upcoming drive-by celebrations. I get it. The kids will love it – the more the merrier. However, not everyone seeing these posts has the same good intentions. A complete stranger has just learned the names and ages of your children – something they could use to target your child through social media or in real life!
By inviting a complete stranger to join in the parade, you have confirmed your home address the moment someone joins the parade and drives by your house. (It will be obvious were the celebrant lives.)
So parents, please do not post a public invitation to join these celebrations on any social media for your child and especially for other people’s kids unless you have explicit permission. Sharing this type of information online was not safe before the pandemic, not during and not after. We need to be extra vigilant because there are people out there that absolutely do not have the same good intentions that we do. By all means, celebrate these important occasions, but do it safely and protect the privacy of your family by limiting what you share and whom you share it with.
In other words, think before you post and share with care. Congratulations to the class of 2020 and HAPPY BDAY! to everyone that has had to experience a “different” type of celebration this year. Celebrate twice as hard when you can – you deserve it.
#SimpleSecurity
