Texas Together: with Hondo
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Texas Together: with Hondo
Digital Footprints: When Cute School Photos Become Safety Risks with Alliance For Children
The digital world has transformed how we celebrate our children's milestones, but are our back-to-school photo traditions putting kids at risk? This eye-opening conversation with Katia Gonzalez from Alliance for Children reveals the hidden dangers lurking behind those adorable first-day pictures shared across social media.
When we post photos featuring our children's full names, schools, teachers, and other personal details, we're creating a digital roadmap that potentially leads straight to them. While most parents focus on sharing these special moments with friends and family, they rarely consider who else might access this information or how it could be misused. Gonzalez explains that predators often use these details not for immediate physical threats but to build relationships with children online—"It's easier to do the more information that we know about a child."
What's particularly alarming is how tech-savvy today's children are from incredibly young ages. Even kindergartners navigate online spaces with surprising fluency, forming relationships and having conversations their parents or guardians might be completely unaware of. This digital generation gap means many adults simply don't understand the extent of their children's online activities or the associated risks.
Thankfully, there are simple ways to protect children while still celebrating these important milestones. Using only first names, ensuring social media profiles are private, being mindful of what's visible in photo backgrounds, and limiting identifiable details can significantly reduce risks while still allowing families to share special moments.
Alliance for Children has worked since 1992 to protect children in Tarrant County, offering valuable resources including digital safety education programs for children as young as kindergarten and training for adults who want to learn more about keeping kids safe online. Their most crucial advice resonates with powerful simplicity: "Not everybody is a person that we can trust."
Visit allianceforchildren.org to learn more about digital safety resources and discover how you can better protect the children in your life while navigating our increasingly connected world.
This is Texas Together, the podcast celebrating the people, missions and stories that bring Texas together. It's actually episode one. Back to School is happening here in North Texas and probably all around the state this week. Thousands upon thousands of kiddos are going back to school. My wife is celebrating, Katia, her 27th first day of teaching.
Katia Gonzalez:How exciting is that. Congrats to her.
Hondo:And so I was playing around on the Book of Faces and lo and behold, what do I see Right in time for school, a post from Alliance for Children, Tarrant County, about back to school safety. Now, and, by the way, say hello to my guest for the next 30 minutes or so Katia Gonzalez, how are you?
Katia Gonzalez:I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me.
Hondo:What intrigued me about this is when you think about all these kids going back to school. I know for a lot of families it's not even really a tradition, it's more like a rite of passage right, you take that first day of school photo. I saw this post on Facebook from Alliance for Children, tarrant County's Facebook page. You ought to follow them there. It was very simple what not to post on your child's first day of school? And I thought, huh, when I was a kid I'm sure I'm older than you are, Katia, but when I was a kid, first day of school pictures got put on the refrigerator and maybe sent to grandma and that was about it.
Katia Gonzalez:Or in the newsletter or something like that.
Hondo:Yeah, exactly Right. I remember those days and that was it. You didn't have to worry about anything else. Well, there was one exception, I guess if you gave your school picture to your girlfriend Sally, you you occasionally had to worry about Sally ripping it up when she broke up with you. But that's not a conversation for today. That's a bad experience I don't want to talk about.
Katia Gonzalez:Okay, I can tell you have a story to that.
Hondo:Yeah, we're not going to go there, Katia, so tell everybody about you, what you do at Alliance for Children?
Katia Gonzalez:Yeah, so I'm the Director of Training and Team Relations at Alliance for Children, and we do a lot of really great things, but one of the departments that I oversee is our education department. So we go to schools and we talk to kids about how to stay safe, and one of the ways, one of the lessons that we have, is about digital safety or internet safety, and then we also talk to adults about ways. If we're telling children how to stay safe and report to trusted adults if somebody is hurting them, then we also want to make sure that the adults in their lives are also properly trained in how to protect them and how to take action if needed.
Hondo:So, going back to this post that y'all did, now this is an audio podcast, so we're going to try to make this uh kind of paint a picture of you will. There's a kiddo holding a sign that is very familiar in households all across not just North Texas but really America with hey. My name is Jaylynn Garcia, I'm in fourth grade, I am nine years old, my school is Alliance Elementary, my teacher is Mrs Evans, and when I grow up, I want to be a veterinarian. And that picture is subtitled with what not to post on your child's first day of school, and it's got various little things leading to that picture of her holding up this wonderful little sign that you should not post.
Hondo:And again, there's a lot of things that especially parents that are my age are not thinking about. Right, because they're not thinking about digital safety, social media safety, because we didn't grow up in that era, citing Taylor Swift. We weren't in that era. So let's start with a full name. Why is it that you don't want to post your child's full name on their back to school photo? What's wrong? What's the harm in putting just hey, my name is Hondo Robertson.
Katia Gonzalez:Sure, well, we teach children about not posting about personal information about themselves because that could get in a variety of dangers. So we also want to make sure, like well, we're teaching children that let's make sure that the adults in their lives are following by example with that as well. So, and there's a variety of just risky situations that can happen when we post too much personal information. So if you're posting that on Instagram or Facebook, we don't know if those profiles are private. So there could be just random people that are viewing your child's information knowing their names, like their full name, so first or last name. So it's a lot of access to a child just knowing that, and then I think we'll talk through about some of the dangers with that. So it's not necessarily just knowing their name, but they're knowing their name plus a myriad of all other information about them.
Hondo:And again from Alliance for Children's standpoint, and rightfully so.
Hondo:You all are concerned mostly with the perpetrators who would want to do harm to these kiddos, right, yes, that is our mission, yes, and when we make those posts, we're thinking of like, we're posting this for our friends and family to see and to celebrate with us. I don't think that most adults are posting that information thinking of other pick right, and they do it for every year typically Um, but especially a youngster, like my wife's first grade school teacher.
Hondo:Those kids are six, seven years old, sometimes five years old, six years old. Parents aren't thinking about, uh, any of that other stuff other than, oh my gosh, my baby's growing up right. This is their kindergarten. They're going into kindergarten, they're going into the first grade, now they're going into second, or whatever the case might be, they want to celebrate those milestones. So, going to the second picture, what are some safe ways that parents can share those back to school moments without compromising a child's safety?
Katia Gonzalez:Yeah, well, I would say that limiting as much of that personal information as we can would be really beneficial. And then also paying attention to where we're posting that information. So making sure that if you're posting on Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat, that only people that you want to see your child's picture have access to that. So making sure that if you're posting on Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat, that only people that you want to see your child's picture have access to that, so making sure that all of your profiles are set to private, is really important. But then it's also thinking through of like, ok, I'm posting my child's name, so now somebody that might have access to that will know their name. They'll know the school that we go to If we're posting where at school they go to.
Katia Gonzalez:Most of us have schools that are really close to where we live, so now this person knows, like, the proximity of where that person might live. And then most of those pictures that I've seen like I know I'm similar to you to where I'm sifting through my social media and I've seen all these adorable pictures, but most of them are in front of their house, right, so, kind of depending, some of them might be like right in front of their door, but some of them are like really wide where you can see the entire house, and if somebody is really wanting to get information, they can likely figure out if they have a school name of the street or something like that that might be in the background. So all of those things are just providing a lot of information. No-transcript profiles.
Katia Gonzalez:And all of that to say I want to point out is most of the time abuse doesn't happen with strangers. It usually happens with somebody that child already knows and trusts. So I want to point out is, most of the time abuse doesn't happen with strangers, it usually happens with somebody that child already knows and trusts. So I want to point that out. But it doesn't mean that we shouldn't protect them from other situations as well. We're talking about digital safety. So you're right, for years we're saying like statistically it used to actually be like 95, 98% when we looked at numbers with somebody that that child knew and trust and over the years we're seeing that kind of like dwindling down to like in the 90%, to somebody that that child like knows within their circle, like somebody that they know in person and real life.
Katia Gonzalez:But what we're seeing more and more is that I don't want to say stranger situation. It's still somebody that that child develops a relationship with, but we're seeing more and more of that relationship building happening online with what like essentially strangers, not somebody that's in that child's normal circle, but they're meeting people online. They're developing a relationship with them and a lot of that can be through sharing of that information and developing that kind of rapport with the child, and that's easier to do when you know more about them, and then dangerous situations can happen from them. So that's easier to do when you know more about them and then dangerous situations can happen from them. So that's what we're trying to avoid is that the less information, the less access people have to our kids online, the safer that is for them yeah, hanging out with katia gonzalez, who is with alliance for children.
Hondo:Tell everybody your fancy title again, because it's longer than mine.
Hondo:Mine's just goofball
Katia Gonzalez:Oh goodness.
Katia Gonzalez:It's not super fancy, but it's Director of Training and Team Relations. Yes, director of Training and Team Relations. Alliance for Children. Alliance for Children Tell everybody your website. I've got it right here. It's been a little bit Allianceforchildrenorg Super easy.
Hondo:Allianceforchildrenorg is the website where you can get all kinds of information. And she just touched on something we're talking specifically about a Facebook post with this kiddo holding up the first day of school sign or picture. You know, hey, my name is such and such, my teacher is so and so-so, and limiting the amount of information in your first day of school photos. But when we're talking about a digital world, it really goes. That goes equal with just digital, the type of information that you're putting on your profile on any social media website. To begin with, right, because certain ones Facebook for example will let you put your hometown, city you live in now, where you were born, all that stuff.
Hondo:And even with that, especially for kids, because I don't know how old you have to be you're not 14, I think to legally have a Facebook. That's something that parents want to be cognizant of, how much of that information that they are sharing that certain social media outlets would like you to believe hey, this is just so that we can help you build your network of friends, find other friends in your area, things like that, and that's true, that's fine, that's cool. Other people will have other intentions, and when we're dealing with our children. That's where you have to be cognizant of not everything. It may be as it seems.
Katia Gonzalez:Yes, you're absolutely correct. So the more careful that we can be, even overly cautious, is still better for our kids whenever it comes to safety.
Hondo:Yeah, so here's a question for you. So the concern that we're talking about again, we're focusing primarily on this Facebook post of this sweet kid holding up the sign with a do not or what not to post, and then what to post, which is basically the first name only no identifiable details and a fun little fact. You know, this particular kiddo wants to be a veterinarian. Thank goodness she didn't choose DJ, just saying she wants to be able to feed her family when she grows up. Is this concern that we're talking about solely about social media posts, or can there also be risks when we're sharing as kiddos, perhaps like in private groups or with other friends?
Katia Gonzalez:sure, I feel like we have to be careful, just regardless like I know we um mentioned several times already is it's not necessarily strangers, so people that you don't trust that that hurt children or put them in dangerous situations. So I feel like any time that we're sharing any type of information about our children, we need to be cautious and careful. So I think that can be expounded to in-person situations as well.
Hondo:And then I wanted to ask you about what you do specifically with the education aspect is how does Alliance for Children work with, let's say, schools, law enforcement and parents and educators to help spread these safety tips? What kind of workshops and classes, the things you do you mentioned you go into schools. What kind of? How does that look?
Katia Gonzalez:Yeah, well, we're the only non-profit that's directly involved in child abuse investigation.
Katia Gonzalez:So we work together with law enforcement, the Child Protective Services, just with a variety of organizations within our community, all to intervene in situations where child abuse has occurred on a criminal level.
Katia Gonzalez:So because of that, we have a lot of expertise on how we can prevent that. So we do partner with for children's education. We partner with school districts within Tarrant County, so we go to schools and we talk to kids about personal body safety, so what to do in situations if abuse is occurring. And then we also spend a lot of time talking about internet safety and digital safety. So it's really teaching kids a lot of the components that we're discussing today about not sharing private information, about just kind of some of the risk factors that can occur with what they do online. So we spend a lot of time doing that education, starting all the way with kindergarten, because a lot of like when we, when we go to schools, like we notice a lot of kindergartners that are on iPads, they have phones, they watch YouTube videos, they're very active online, um, so we want to make sure that when they're doing that, so they're doing that safely, that is um, and then?
Katia Gonzalez:for same thing with adults, yeah.
Hondo:Speaking of adults. So then, um, are there resources? Cause it's really cool that y'all are going into the schools to work with these kiddos as young as you know five years old, Gosh, four or five years old in kindergarten. What about the parents? Are there workshops or resources? I can't talk today, you know, hooked on phonics, it can help you too workshops or resources where families can access information to learn more about that online safety, especially again, going back to parents that are, or grandparents, you know so many.
Hondo:This is another statistic that's just hard to grasp sometimes and hard to swallow, is that so many of these kiddos are not being raised by their parents for one reason or another. Right, they're being raised by an aunt, an uncle, a grandparent, multiple grandparents, and then when you get into, I'm probably old enough to be a grandparent. I got two puppies in there, but that's it. But, you know, for a grandparent who certainly doesn't know anything about Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter X, whatever it's called today, are there workshops or resources that these families can access to learn and to better educate themselves about online safety with their kiddos?
Katia Gonzalez:Oh for sure, and online safety constantly changes. There's all kinds of new apps that come by, so I think it's a constant. We have to, as adults, educate ourselves so we know what our kids are doing. But our resources at Alliance for Children probably the easiest way to access is just to go to our website but we offer on a regular basis just ongoing classes that we do virtually. That relates to supporting parents as they're having conversations about Internet safety with their children and kind of going through some safety dynamics with that, some safety dynamics with that. We also offer free courses, like if you have a PTA group or maybe you're part of a church group or a parent group or have a gathering of 15 or more, as we usually say, like we can come to you and offer training as well. So we just don't do that on an individual basis, but if you have a group that could benefit from that information. We also travel all over Tarrant County providing presentations and trainings for people that could benefit from that.
Hondo:Math was never my strong point, but I know y'all have been around for a long time since 1992, if I remember correctly. Yes, you are correct. Yeah, memory serves me correctly, I believe it was 1992. So in that time, well, and who knows how long have you been with Alliance for Children, Claudia?
Hondo:This month will actually be 10 years 10 years, okay, so this may apply to you personally as well. I wasn't sure how long of that, 150 billion years, that Lions for Children? That's just quick radio math for you there. 10 years, wow, okay. So, without sharing names, I have you seen real cases where online oversharing, for example, has played a role in endangering a child? That's come through Alliance for Children.
Katia Gonzalez:Oh, certainly we see a lot of where oversharing can become a problem with children. That's coming through Alliance for Children. Is that relationship building? And so it's not always necessarily of like, oh, I'm like I'm a stranger and I know where this kid goes to school, I'm to come grab them. It's more of like hey, little johnny, like I noticed that you want to be a veterinarian, like I also love animals. So it's kind of like finding ways of like knowing enough information, of like oh, I know that you go to the school and I know your teacher is blah, blah, blah and um, like just kind of building that trust and building that relationship. And it's easier to do the more information that we know about a child. So that's kind of where we see the dangerous aspect of that. And then also on the other side I don't know that I have any specific examples, but yes, once you've built that relationship and you also know where that child lives and goes to school, it's a lot easier access to get access to that child on a face-to-face basis. 10 years.
Hondo:That's a lot of experience. What's the one thing that you wish every parent knew about, say, for example, when it comes to posting online or just their child's sharing their child's information out there in the world? What's the one thing that you wish parents knew that perhaps you didn't know when you came to alliance for children, like what was the one aha moment that you were like oh wow, I didn't know that.
Katia Gonzalez:When you came to the organization, gosh, that's probably so many when it comes to internet safety. So many aha moments, because I feel like starting 10 years ago, where the internet is now is a lot different than where it is today. But I would think the biggest hopeful aha moment for me, I think, would be I see that parents and I completely understand that as an adult that didn't grow up with a cell phone as soon as you're old enough to have one. But I think kids are so savvy online and so much of their interaction online that I think parents because that's not the world that we grew up in don't realize how much happens and don't realize how smart and how engaged kids are when it comes to their online world and what I mean by that. It's like they're shocked or like I didn't know that you could talk to people when you're playing video games and like create friendships and create all of these relationships online.
Katia Gonzalez:I think that just is not an area of safety that we think through. Like we think through, I'm not going to like let my kid go to a stranger and get tutoring one-on-one with them, but we don't think as much on well, like who are they talking one-on-one to online? And like who is that person and why are they talking to my child? So I just think overall, just how smart kids are with their online world and how much they do is shocking to parents whenever we have these situations where abuse has happened as a result of that, and it's shocking to me as well of what all kids are engaging in.
Hondo:Oh yeah, some of the things I mean, like I said, especially when you're talking about a grandchild or a grandparent having to a grandchild or a grandparent having to raise their child or their grandchild right, and they don't know anything about social media or and this computer that you've got in your hand and how much you can do and how much you can get into. The kids' brains are not fully formed, you know, and if the child's brain is not fully formed, they don't know what they're getting into and the grandparent doesn't know the first thing about it. You know it's, it's a recipe for what could be, you know, disastrous. To be honest with you, it could be disastrous, and so that's why it's very important, that's why it's a godsend that an organization like Alliance for Children is out there going to the schools educating these kids as young as kindergarten, because you know, five years old, they're on iPads. I mean, good night you um.
Hondo:I get my iPad taken away from me every night at nine o'clock, and I'm 53 years old, so, and that's you know what?
Katia Gonzalez:that's a very good, healthy approach. I like that.
Hondo:Yeah, my wife's first grade school teacher. So every night at nine o'clock, give me your iPad, um and go do your homework. But um, but then also coupling with what Alliance for Children is doing proactively in the schools for these kiddos. It's imperative that these parents, guardians, grandparents whoever is in charge of that child's well-being and educators and educators to educate themselves on what we're talking about today the online safety, digital age safety, in addition to all the other, you know, things that Alliance for Children talks about as far as safety of kiddos, but at the forefront, this online safety is a big one, because these kids are walking around literally with computers and access to the world in their pockets.
Katia Gonzalez:Yeah, you're absolutely right.
Hondo:So I've got one last question for you. That's going to lead into our next interview and that interview is going to take place sometime in April. April is child abuse prevention awareness month. That's when Alliance for Children and I, every year for many, many years, would sit down and talk about all things. Alliance for Children and I, every year for many, many years, would sit down and talk about all things, alliance for Children, usually with uh Katia or uh Julie Evans, the CEO, and everything they're doing. Uh, she mentioned their collaboration with law enforcement, and we talk about all that stuff in April.
Hondo:That's great, but, as we know, child abuse doesn't happen stuff in April, that's great, but, as we know, child abuse doesn't happen just in April, right?
Hondo:So that's why, when I saw this yeah, when I saw this post and back to school is happening here in Texas this week, so I thought we need to jump on the horn and talk about this now, as parents are getting ready to put out those first day of school pictures. But before I ask you this last question if parents remember just one thing from what we talked about today, what would you want that to be?
Katia Gonzalez:One thing. That's a tough one, but I would just say be careful on how trusting we are. Like, not everybody is a person that we can trust. So as much as we can put protective boundaries around kids, regardless of who they're with, um the safer that that children can be. So pay attention to those red flags and build those protective barriers, doesn't matter who the child is with right.
Hondo:And then the big question and this is going to be the cliffhanger till April 2026, is what we've been talking about today, as far as these pictures, these wonderful, beautiful pictures that everybody loves seeing on first day of school advice that you've provided today fit into a broader strategy for teaching these kiddos about digital safety. That's what we're going to talk about in April. Kadi Gonzalez she is the Director of Training and Team Relations. I wrote that down with my number two pencil on my big chief tablet.
Katia Gonzalez:I love it.
Hondo:You don't even know what a big chief tablet is. You're way younger than I am.
Katia Gonzalez:I don't know. I don't know that I want to say how old I am, but no, I do not know what that is.
Hondo:Big Chief tablet number two, pencil. And I'm going to wrap it all up in my I do know the number two pencil. I'm going to wrap it all up in my Trapper Keeper and hold on to this information till April 2026. While you go, google Big Chief Tablets and Trapper Keepers.
Katia Gonzalez:I will go do that.
Hondo:Real quick. Do you all have any big events coming up? Folks need to know about between now and April when we talk.
Katia Gonzalez:February is our let's Play Bingo event. So it's an event just for ladies, but it's an opportunity to gather to support Alliance for Children and then just have lots and lots of fun playing bingo.
Hondo:Let's play bingo in February. You can get more details coming soon to allianceforchildrenorg. Again, special thanks to Katia Gonzalez, Director of Training Team Relations at Alliance for Children. I am Hondo. This has been Texas Together. Go out and make it a great week, y'all, and dare to care.
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