The Special Action Group to Combat Cybercrime of the Public Ministry of Minas Gerais (Gaeciber/MPMG) warns parents not to publish photos of their children in school uniforms. The agency clarifies that exposing children’s routine on social media should be avoided.
Information such as the name of the school where the minor studies, the courses he or she attends, can be useful for criminals who are dedicated to creating kidnapping pranks or even for those who are looking for victims to kidnap.
The coordinator of Gaeciber, prosecutor André Salles, said this Monday (9) to Brazil Agency that the alert aims to make parents and guardians aware of the seriousness of the habit.
“The majority of crimes committed on the internet are not cybercrimes. They are not committed through technological attitudes. This overexposure provides more details of people’s lives”, explains the prosecutor.
According to Salles, so-called social engineering is the most famous manipulation. “This exposure provides valuable information to criminals, in the sense that they will know what the routine is, where the child studies, where they go, the places where the parents will be at certain times.”
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Limits
André Salles maintained that this type of exposure should be avoided. Children must obey criteria on social networks, meeting limits imposed by parents and guardians. And even if they post photos or data, parents should limit who has access to that information.
“Because this information is valuable for criminals when they plan their scams.”
The prosecutor warned that these criminals can establish a relationship of trust, advertising themselves as other people, for example a school director or bank manager, so that the trap becomes more credible for the victim of the scam that is set up based on the information provided on social networks.
The MPMG has been running campaigns to reduce people’s exposure on social media, especially children and teenagers, in relation to scams and personal crimes, such as photo montages, which affect victims of all ages.
The objective is to raise awareness among the population to increase control, “which must be reinforced”, and what the limit is for publicizing people’s work on the internet. “Any information serves as identity”, he warned. Gaeciber has also carried out campaigns for MPMG’s internal audience, with the same purpose of raising awareness among the agency’s employees.
Responsible use
Data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) from 2024 show that 94% of Brazilians are connected to the internet. It is necessary, however, for this population to become aware of the responsible use of the internet, considered the prosecutor. Gaeciber is always carrying out prevention and awareness work regarding care and attention regarding crimes on social networks.
A “task force was recently created to prevent scams in the payment of IPVA and also to talk about repression, which has obtained convictions”. Last year, the task force obtained convictions of more than 14 years in prison for perpetrators of sexual crimes and more than 12 years for extortion crimes. “This demonstrates that these facts are very serious”, concluded André Salles.
