Seen At 11: Social Media Could Expose Families To Virtual Kidnapping

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Parents will do anything to keep their children safe, but social media is presenting new and potentially dangerous challenges.

As CBS2's Hazel Sanchez explained, people are stealing pictures of kids and passing them off as their own children.

It's a creepy trend called virtual kidnapping.

"It's scary. That's the only thing I can really say, it's scary," Dallas mother Danica Patterson said.

Patterson was shocked and terrified when she saw her own 4-year-old daughter's pictures on a total stranger's Facebook page.

"It was my daughter! All over his page," she said.

Not only were Bryleigh's pictures plastered all over he also claimed she was his daughter.

It's a dark side of the Internet where people go on social media, copy pictures of someone else's children, put them on their own page, and claim them as their own.

"It's terrifying to know that someone has hijacked your child," Patterson said.

Security expert Paul Viollis called it highly disturbing and worried about the potential for disaster.

"Is that person going to be satisfied with the delusion of owning them on Facebook, or will they pursue them in person with this becoming a kidnap scenario? Will this become a hostage scenario?" Viollis said.

Most parents told CBS2 they had never heard of it.

"My heart's pounding -- not because of the camera, but because of what you're talking about. Just thinking about it, that's pretty frightening," one mother said.

Patterson said she reported the incident repeatedly to Facebook and more than a dozen of her friends have done the same.

"Facebook sees no problem with this man pretending this little girl is his," Patterson said.

She said the posts were removed after the media began questioning Facebook.

A spokesman for Facebook said that the content violates their standards and that they quickly work to remove such content as soon as it's reported.

Viollis said when it comes to online sharing parents need to be especially aware and vigilant.

"I think there are far too many parents that just have their head in the sand. You need to do a better job of protecting your children," Viollis said.

You can adjust your privacy settings so that only certain people can see pictures, but remember your cover photo and picture are always public, so you may not want to put your child in them.

If there is a picture of your child in an album that someone else posted, you can remove the tag or ask the person who posted it to take it down.