• E-MAIL: Access to your email account. During the registration process, social networks often solicit a new user to provide an email address and account password so they can access the user’s email address book. To be safe, don’t provide this information at all. There are some social networks that capture a user’s email contacts and then solicit them – often repeatedly – to join. If you consider providing an email address and account password to a social network, read all agreements (including the privacy policy) very carefully before clicking on them. An email address associated with your professional life. Never provide a work-associated email to a social network, especially when signing up. Consider creating a new email address strictly to connect with your social networking profile(s). Jobseekers should take special care to keep professional and personal lives separate.

• DATE OF BIRTH: Your exact date of birth, especially in combination with your place of birth. Your exact date of birth may be useful to an identity thief. A 2009 study published by researchers at Carnegie Mellon showed that a date and place of birth could be used to predict most, and sometimes all, of the nine digits of one’s Social Security number. If you do decide to post your birthday, use privacy settings to restrict the visibility of this information and don’t provide the year.

• BROWSING HISTORY: Delete cookies, including flash cookies, every time you leave a social networking site. Also consider using a proxy server to mask your IP address, such as Tor. See PRC Fact Sheet 18: Privacy and the Internet

• VACATION PLANS: Don’t publicize vacation plans, especially the dates you’ll be traveling. Remember, no matter how carefully you construct your privacy settings, there’s no guarantee that what you post won’t become known to unauthorized viewers.

• PERSONAL INFORMATION: Public posts with your address, phone number or email address. Don’t post your address, phone number or email address on a social network profile or status update. Scam artists as well as marketing companies may be looking for this kind of information. If you do choose to post any portion of this, use privacy settings to restrict it to approved contacts. Be especially wary of providing a GPS location of your home. If you use a location-aware social network, use extra caution! Don’t publicize the location of your home because people will know when you are not there. (See Please Rob Me – Raising Awareness about Oversharing)

• PICTURES/POSTS: Compromising, sensitive, embarrassing or inflammatory pictures or posts. Remember that whatever goes on a network might eventually be seen by people not in the intended audience. Think about whether you would want a stranger, an insurance agent, the government, your mother or a potential boss to see certain information or pictures. Don’t be afraid to ask to have content removed. Read more about what information is public on social networks.
• MONEY: Be wary of requests for money, even if they are from contacts you know and trust. If a contact’s account is compromised, a scam artist may use his or her name and account to attempt to defraud others through bogus money requests.

• PRIVACY SETTINGS: Any individual who participates in social networking sacrifices a certain amount of privacy, but a savvy user can limit what they share. Remember, the strongest tools users have to defend their personal privacy on social networking sites are common sense, caution and skepticism.Read more about social networking privacy – including 18 more vital tips for protecting personal privacy– by reading PRC’s newest fact sheet Social Networking Privacy: How to be Safe, Secure and Social.

Investigators charged Aveion’s step-father, Brandon Lockett, with improper disposal of a human body, obstruction of justice, and felony child neglect after a false report was filed that Aveion was abducted.  Police canceled an Amber Alert for the child after Lockett admitted Aveion was dead before the bogus abduction took place.  Authorities say they were able to get this information and come to this conclusion after conflicting statements were given to authorities early on.  Although police say Lockett admitted Aveion was dead before the Amber Alert was issued, investigators early on did not know exactly where the child’s body could be.

Information from an unsealed search warrant I obtained from the Roanoke City Court paints a clear picture into Aveion’s life before his death.  The warrant states, “Aveion Lewis was removed from the custody of his biological mother and stepfather, Morgan and Brandon Lockett, in May 2008 due to a “failure to thrive.”  Aveion was 14-months-old, weighed less than nine pounds, and according to the documents, the parents were not complying with the medical instructions for his care.  After 45 days in foster care, Aveion doubled his weight and was doing well.  An investigation indicates Aveion recently sustained contact burns on both legs, which resulted in blistering from a home heater.  Sadly, medical attention was never sought for the burns because the parents were afraid.  They have a past history with the Department of Social Services, and as an excuse, they say Aveion has a “high threshold for pain.”

Aveion Lewis was removed from the home by authorities in May 2008 and returned in September 2009, sixteen months later.  A significant change in the Lockett’s family structure occurred in September 2009, when Aveion was returned to the home.  Investigative interviews determined that upon Aveion’s return to the home 4 months ago, the Locketts had begun toilet training.  According to the unsealed search warrant, research in child homicide has reflected that toilet training accidents are often the provocation for physical punishments, sometimes resulting in death.  Aveion Lewis was born with a medical condition which resulted in surgery to remove a portion of his intestines and thereafter he required a strict schedule of feeding and proper medication.  Failure of the parents to comply with this schedule resulted in his removal of the home.  The warrant states the Locketts have four children, including Aveion, all under the age of four, and that the family also experienced financial hardships (cable was disconnected) prior to Aveion’s disappearance.  The stepfather was unemployed at the time of Aveion’s bogus abduction and the mother was employed at a minimum wage job.  The investigation has uncovered instances of illegal drug activity by the stepfather prior to the incident, and Brandon Lockett has a prior drug conviction from Georgia as well as two arrests involving family violence in 2006 and 2007.  Aveion Lewis is 2 years of age and will be 3 years old on January 26^th.  According to a 2006 study by the Department of Health and Human Services, children younger than 4 years of age are at greatest risk of severe injury or death by their parents or caregivers.”

I spoke with Robin Haldiman, CEO of the Child Health Investment Partnership (CHIP) of Roanoke Valley.  She told me their agency was involved with Aveion and his family from an early age.  The CHIP program makes monthly visits to families to help teach them parenting skills, coordinate health care, and to make sure the child is developing appropriately for their age.  They currently have a waiting list, and are helping about 1,100 children per year.  The agency staff are mandated reporters who are required to report abuse and child neglect to Child Protective Services (CPS) if they see issues in the home.  If a report is made, CPS will conduct a separate investigation, and if it is necessary they will remove the child.  Sadly, this is exactly what the agency had to do with Aveion.  Robin says the child was taken out of his home with his mother and placed with a loving foster family in May 2008.  Robin says the court system put Aveion back with his mother, not CPS.  I spoke with a clerk at the court, and although they would not comment specifically on Aveion’s case, he did tell me that a court hearing does take place in these types of cases, and a judge makes the final decision as to where the child goes, or if the child is placed back into the home with their parents. The CHIP organization tried to go back into home to do monthly visits after Aveion was placed with his mother, but sadly Robin says they were turned away.  Aveion’s mother would not sign a consent form to enter the home again.  This is probably due to the fact that the CHIP organization filed the original complaint with Child Protective Servies about Aveion’s welfare.  The CHIP service is voluntary, not mandatory, and they work hard to ensure children are safe. Robin confirms that when Aveion was 15-months-old he was underweight, only eight pounds, and when he was placed with his foster family, he began to become healthy again.  Robin and the members of her staff who worked with Aveion from early on are heartbroken about the loss of this child, and as you can imagine, they grew close with the toddler since he was born.