Posting pictures of children on social media in any way violates privacy rights. Furthermore, uploading pictures of children on social media in this day and age is a real threat to their safety.
Becoming a target for sexual predators
Our children’s images can become the target of sexual predators while if we don’t upload them, we wouldn’t know. Moreover, many children do not like it and may be psychologically affected. France’s data protection agency has called on parents to strongly control their privacy rights to limit their images and families from being accessed by bad actors. The more social media crimes there are, the more parents need to be considerate when uploading pictures and family stories on social media.
Creating opportunities for impersonating children
This “game” mainly takes place on Instagram. Users upload pictures of children they find online and pretend that they are their own children and then share fictional stories to get likes and views. There are even accounts that post pictures of other people’s children with hashtags like #openrp, #adoptionrp, #babyrp… implying that the child is available for adoption. Therefore, do not contribute to the exploitation of your child’s image by bad actors.
Posting explicit images
Children also have the right to privacy and their young bodies should be respected discreetly. Therefore, do not post explicit images of your child when they are still young. Many people take advantage of this and post them on the dark web. Even photos of children wearing full clothes can still be photoshopped, beware!
Child being photoshopped
Photos on the internet being photoshopped and stories being pushed out further away are nothing new. Memes can be funny and entertaining but they can also hurt your child. Furthermore, your child is still young and cannot make decisions about you posting pictures of them while they are still young. Later on, they may feel resentful about it. In France, parents can face a one-year imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros if convicted of publicly revealing the private life of others, including their own children, without consent.
Social media brings many benefits but recently, there are more and more malicious individuals taking advantage of social media for bad purposes. Therefore, don’t turn your child into a resource exploited by criminals. You may think everything is normal when there are no consequences or impacts yet, but when violations occur, then it will be painful. So stop uploading pictures and sharing personal stories on social media.
