Grandsharenting: Proud grandparents giving away too much on Facebook

Grandparents tend to fall in two categories on using social media and the Internet; in the one group are those so paranoid about privacy and safety that they do not even want digital bank accounts, let alone any social media accounts and in the other group are the over-sharers who want to proudly post every minute detail of their family's lives on Facebook; not many have moved over to Instagram or any of the other platforms. And if they are proud grandparents, oh my, do they like to post pictures of the antics, cherub faces, medals and prizes that their grandchildren have won. For many silver surfers, Facebook is a wonderful means of communicating and discovering long lost friends. Although we had to warn an elderly relative that the sudden friends she was making in Nigeria and Columbia are probably up to no good and that she should be more careful of accepting "friends". As it is a wide open fishing net for those with dubious intentions; grandparents need to be more careful, especially when it comes to posting pictures of their grandchildren. In South Africa, where there have been cases of children who were kidnapped, posting pictures of children with school uniforms could be a risk. Julie Jargon suggests in the Wall Street Journal that a "grandsharenting conversation" should take place with grandparents on the potential implications of posting pictures on the internet. – Linda van  Tilburg