The Buzzfeed video below is definitely entertaining, so do watch it for fun sake at least. But there is a grain of truth here that I want to challenge all church communication staff and volunteers.
Replace these individuals who have allowed themselves to be discovered with your congregation.
- You take a photo of your youth at camp having fun. That photo pops up on your church site without family permission and the father in a custody battle finds it. Trouble ensues.
- You highlight a volunteer at church with a video asking some personal questions on their faith which friends and family discover and disagree with. Trouble ensues.
- You create a Facebook event for VBS and parents and teenagers sign in. Stalk central. Trouble ensues.
- You discuss the topic of sex and interview a teenager about the topic where they share a powerful personal story. The other individual in the relationship did not give permission to share it. Trouble ensues.
- You post a video of a fun fall festival event where someone gets pranked with water being dumped on them. Coworkers and bosses find it and gossip at work. Trouble ensues.
These are not hypothetical ideas, I’ve done them all myself. I speak from experience.
In the moment, these things are fun or even inspiring for our faith. But are we thinking about the digital implications of such actions? Check out the video and leave me some of your pushback and concerns in the comments below.
[Video via YouTube]
Eric Dye says
LOL So true. Most people don’t check their public profiles, nor think about how easy it is to access this kind of info.