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(#1) Parents Posting Pics Risk Exposing Their Children To Bullying
A report by the children’s commissioner for England, titled Life In Likes, asked 32 children around the country about how social media impacts their daily lives. The findings revealed that between the ages of 11-18. children become far more concerned about online validation through likes, comments, and approval from friends. Any personal photos that haven't been approved by the pictured child could leave them open to ridicule and humiliation.
The children’s commissioner, Anne Longfield said:
“While social media clearly provides some great benefits to children, it is also exposing them to significant risks... I want to see children living healthy digital lives. That means parents engaging more with what their children are doing online. Just because a child has learnt the safety messages at primary school does not mean they are prepared for all the challenges that social media will present.”
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(#2) A Digital Footprint Can Last A Lifetime
Photos that seem cute when a child is three or four could come back to haunt them when they are older. In an attempt to combat a phenomenon known as “sharenting” (or parents sharing photos of their kids), children’s rights advocates believe that kids should have a say in what information is shared about them. Bullying is a huge problem, but it's also important to consider identity theft, as an easily accessible digital history can potentially leave the door open for cyber-criminals later in life.
Stacey Steinberg, a legal skills professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, and Bahareh Keith, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Florida College of Medicine, cited a study published in 2016, wherein 249 families were questioned about internet privacy practices. When asked whether there should be rules regulating what parents can share online, kids were far more concerned about their privacy than adults.
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(#3) Sweet Family Photos Can Attract Skeezy Predators
In 2015, the Australian government conducted a survey, and discovered millions of photos found on websites set up to showcase inappropriate images of children were re-purposed from social media. Senior investigator at the eSafety Commissioner, Toby Dagg, said that on one site contained at least 45 million images, and that "about half the material appeared to be sourced directly from social media”. By simply adding a caption to accompany the photo, a "cute" image can become a sexual object for predators.
Parents were shocked to discover how wide-spread this practice is. A 2013 investigation uncovered one site with about 100 images of children doing seemingly innocuous things like playing and opening presents. Within 10 days of being uploaded, the content had been viewed 1.7 million times, and explicit comments abounded.
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(#4) Friends And Family May Not Appreciate Being Tagged In Your Kids' Photos
The Guardian ran a story in 2014 about a mother who posted a photo of her newborn baby lying beside her friend’s baby. They were born a month apart, and the older baby was taller than the younger one. Her caption read, “What a difference a month makes.” While this may seem innocent, the friend had yet to publicly announce the birth of her baby, and wasn't ready to share with the world. Some of her online contacts didn’t even know she was pregnant, let alone a new mother.
Posting pics of other people’s kids — no matter how mild the context — can always pose problems if you don’t have both the parents' and their child’s permission.
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(#5) Don't Politicize Your Children
If you go to a political rally or a march and bring your children, do not take photos of them to post online. As far as your children are concerned, they are just going somewhere with mom and dad. They don't have the life experience to weigh in on real-world political issues (they're probably just copying your politics), and parading them around like they're young activists is exploitative.
By teaching your children that your own personal beliefs are the "right" ones, you're not giving them a chance to make their own informed decisions. On the contrary, you're conditioning them from an early age to blindly follow others, and to not consider all sides of an issue before forming their own conclusions. If the cause you're supporting is truly just, your children will eventually come around to your way of thinking, but you need to give them the time to figure it out for themselves.
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(#6) Athletes Need To Be Flawless And Injury Free
If your child is in the running for an athletic college scholarship, the last thing you want to catalog on social media is their recovery from a torn ACL or broken leg. At St. Paul's Episcopal School in Mobile, AL — the high school that produced Crimson Tide quarterbacks AJ McCarron and Jake Coker — athletes are drilled on more than just game day tactics. Coach Steve Mask warns players not to post about injuries, as that information could scare away recruiters.
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(#7) When Internet Trolls Strike, Your Children Are A Weak Point
At one point or another, everyone engages in internet fights that get more heated than they probably should. Whether the feud erupts over sports, politics, or celebrity gossip, public forums are rife with disagreement, and internet trolls will seize any opportunity to exploit their adversaries' weaknesses. If you're not careful, a flustered debate over the Trump administration could end with your little one's photos being publicly ridiculed. If you're going to get into it online, make sure your kids are safely tucked away first.
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(#8) Your Child Could Sue You And Win
In 2017, an Austrian 18-year-old sued her parents after they refused to remove her childhood photos from Facebook. “They knew no shame and no limits... they didn’t care if I was sitting on the toilet or lying naked in the cot, every moment was photographed and made public,” the woman said. She has a point; she didn't consent to having those photos taken, so she should have a say on who gets to see them.
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(#9) The Photos You Share Might Not Line Up With Your Child's Self-Perceived Identity
Chances are good that you don't have a clue about your child's relationship to their gender identity. If your child is transgender or nonbinary (or comes out to you as such in the future), the same photos that make you recall happy memories could remind them of traumatic feelings that you had no idea about. Facebook's strict name policies are already a huge burden on trans people, and the last thing you want to do is add to your child's daily stress level. Some trans people are totally okay with seeing photos of themselves from childhood, but others are trying their hardest to move on with their lives, so it's never a good idea to assume that your child is fine with what you're posting.
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(#10) Ask Your Children What Photos You Can Share, It'll Teach Them About Consent
Even with all the inherent risks, most parents will find it hard to totally avoid posting photos of their kids online. As soon as they see their child's face light up on their birthday, most parents will feel compelled to share their joy with the world. If you absolutely need to post a photograph of your child online, the best thing to do is to ask their permission first; doing so will help instill the importance of consent in them from a young age.
In practice, the idea of consent is far less clean cut than it should be, and many adults have difficulty understanding what constitutes legitimate consent, and when consent is required. By asking your child's permission before posting their image online, they'll begin to understand the importance of consent from an early age, and will hopefully carry these lessons on into adulthood. If your child initially agrees to let you post a photo of them, then changes their mind at a later date, that's an even better lesson; people should be allowed to reassess their feelings at any point, and by respecting their wishes, you're setting a splendid example.
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Do you also share photos of your kids on social media? Do you have friends post the first ultrasound photo of their baby, a photo of a family vacation, or a kid's birthday? Most parents like to share photos of their kids at a special time with their other families or friends far away. But people should not let their children show up on social media, the first thing involved is the right to privacy.
If you decide to post your child's photo on the Internet, you should confirm that your profile is private or only authorize selected people to access your photo. The random tool explains 10 important things about posting pictures of your kids online.
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