Privacy, respect, and safety are all important parent child issues. Learn how to post pictures of your kids safely online.
I am no stranger to the enjoyment of sharing family photos online. I love to connect with other mothers and family members through regular photo updates. It is currently the cultural norm to have social media be a art of everyday life. Kind of like a digital scrapbook laying on a coffee table, during a large party.
There are however risks to the internet. This might date me a bit, but when the internet became widely used in most households somehwere in the late 90’s early 2000’s, most people where skeptical, at first. “They want me to put in my credit card information?!…I don’t think so!” “My full name?…Get lost!”
Today, that is not a reality for most people. Banking information, photos, passwords, social security numbers…all online!
Social Media isn’t going away any time soon so learning how we can post that best protects our kid’s privacy and safety is important.
Use Privacy Settings
Privacy settings have come a long way since social media first started. Learn the settings available to you, if personal family content is involved it is highly important to learn what privacy settings mean. In all honesty, unless your account is a business account or a professional blog, there is no reason for it to be public. So if you use no other setting than that you’re off to a great start.
Avoid Personal Identifiable Information (PII)
This kind of information is one of the leading causes of Identity Fraud. You heard it! It’s also the information hackers can use to get into your accounts. Here is some information you should avoid sharing publicly or even on a private account:
- Full name
- Birthday
- Zip code
- School Name
- Extra Curricular Organizations
Remember, once something is posted on the internet is extremely difficult to remove.
Stay Away From Hashtags
Hashtags are a discovery tool, a way to find things in search. Predators will look for kid-related hashtags to find images to steal. One 2015 investigation found that over half the images found on a child exploitation site were stolen from social media.
Also, avoid creating a hashtag for your child! Anyone could follow that hashtag and you would never know, but they would be notified when you post a photo of your kid with it. Even if your account is private, there’s no real benefit of using one. Your account could be hacked and then potentially those images could be made public with a hashtag to anyone to easily find your kid archive.
Consider Their Privacy
The kids being brought up now are the first generation to have their childhoods displayed on social media sites, without their consent. Can kids even consent to this at their age. No they cannot.
Kids born today are often on social media before they are even born. Every life moment is shared for family and friends far away, and strangers. Some kids may grow up to find their entire life online whether they like it or not. Sharing private moments can also lead to cyberbullying, job loss, and judgement from potential relationships.
It’s important to teach your kids what it means to have a photo posted online. They can’t fully understand the depth of what it means, but if they ask you not to post something…don’t. Do you like when someone posts a photo of you that you don’t like?
Find Creative ways to Post Your Kids Safely Online
The good news? There are a lot of ways you can protect their privacy and safety. If you still like to interaction and connection with far away family members through social media. Consider getting creative with which ones you post. Use:
- Group photos-they are harder to edit and less valuable to predators.
- Details rather than the classic “look here and smile”.
- Save the full face photos for your most treasured at home prints, and albums. Face obscuring poses for social media posts.
Final Thoughts on Posting Your Kids Safely Online
If you’re ready to start your online photo safety journey, stick around. I have much more content to share with your about what I have learned about this topic. I’ve been there, I’ve posted more in the past than I would now. There is no use in worrying about he past. Let’s focus on how we can shape and change the future. It might be a good idea to discuss this topic with family members, so they are not blind sided by your change of perspective. Remember, people might forget your new guidelines because oversharing has become so normalized.
I hope this information has been helpful for you to make well informed decisions around your data and privacy.
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