Mumsnet debate: What’s the proof that you’ll get burgled if you post holiday pictures to Facebook while you’re away?

WE’VE all heard the warnings – posting about your holiday on Facebook leaves your family home vulnerable to burglars, who will realise it is empty.

Women are taking to Mumsnet to discuss the dangers of posting on social media while you’re abroad, because some think it’s a load of old nonsense.

Starting the debate, mum Tater Tots said she felt former threads warning against posting pictures on Facebook were both ‘ridiculously paranoid’ and ‘blatantly not true for many reasons’.

She wrote: “1) It's very easy to make your profile visible to friends only, which most people do.

“2) Even if you do have an open profile, surely you'd have to put your address on it as well to be at any risk? Surely no one is that daft?

“3) Do thieves really trawl FB in the desperate hope of finding an open profile complete with full address, the owner of which conveniently happens to be on holiday?

“Wouldn't it be a better idea to watch actual houses in the area for signs of emptiness?

“4) Who the hell has an FB friends list full of potential thieves?!”

Little Princess Sara agreed with Tater Tots, saying: “If you make a post friends-only then no one can see it apart from your own friends, regardless of who likes it.

“I certainly don't have criminals or randos on my FB, and there's nothing on my FB with my address or showing my street or front of my house. It is paranoia.”

While Lasagna felt the wider effect of social media was impossible to control, adding: “Even if I didn’t post a single thing on Facebook, my kids would.

“There's no way I can stop them and it's often too late before I realise they're snapchatting/checking in/uploading pictures/location tagging everywhere we go.”

And MLGs said: “It might be that not all of the members of the family are on holiday.”

However, others felt it was not worth the risk – even if that sun-kissed pic does get you quite a few likes.

Worra Liberty said: “It doesn’t mean they’ll get burgled, it just means they’re taking a silly risk that’s unnecessary.”

2016 Name Change Again agreed, adding: “I always go by the idiom of only putting on Facebook what you would be prepared to announce in the local paper.

“It is very easy to be falsely comforted by having a ‘private’ profile but it is not that straightforward.”

While Xian Liax said: “I think that burglaries are perpetrated by people known to the victim more often than you'd think.

“The only experience of burglary in my circle turned out to be the teenaged son of the person the burglary victim had asked to pop in to feed the pets(!!!)”

The Sun's advice:

• Advertising your holiday on Facebook is something many Brits continue to do, despite the warnings.
• Overall, it is unlikely to put you at risk of burglary, unless you also publish your address or have friends who are secret thieves.
• But it is possible - and if your insurers discover that you’ve posted about your holiday, they could refuse to pay up.
• So it’s safest to avoid posting about your trip until you’re safely home and, if you do choose to ignore the warnings, do so with caution.