Are your teens constantly asking you for permission to get an Instagram, Facebook or Twitter account? If you're like one Colorado mom, you probably tell your kid it's not safe for them to be posting their photos on social media platforms. But this mom went one step further than just telling her kid no,  she posted a Facebook photo of her daughter holding a sign that said "Mom is trying to show me how many people can see a picture once it's on the internet." Mom proved her point, because over one million people saw the photo, at least according to the number of likes it got. And not only could a million strangers see the photo, but they could find the family's phone number and home address too. Horrifying right? This mom clearly proved her point. And while some people are criticizing her for publicly shaming her daughter,  I can't help but applaud her. It's hard for young people to understand the ramifications of posting a photo on social media. They don't really understand how the internet works and how easily they can give away personal information. Most teens don't see the rational reason behind their parents' decisions, they're too blinded by their anger at being the only one of their friends without Instagram. Clearly, you're the mean parent who is the reason they're not cool like the other kids. But this real life experiment proved how far one photo can travel outside of your Facebook friends. And how much information comes with that photo —enough for strangers to send pizzas to the family's home. I'm sure this led to a long discussion of how easily that information could have fallen into the wrong hands. Even the mom learned a lesson, telling the Huffington Post that it showed her how much of her personal information can be shared, despite her Facebook privacy settings. I think a good lesson was learned by all about online safety. And hopefully the young girl is now happy to wait a couple of years before getting Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. What do you think of this mom's experiment? Photo courtesy of kerstin.kraus@rocketmail.com/FlickrCC