Posting photos of your child in a school uniform may seem harmless. After all, you are just proud to see your kid in a school uniform and wanted to share that moment with others. Unfortunately, the online world is teeming with predators. A school uniform is enough to give them information about the name of the school.
Moreover, if the photo shows the kid standing on the school grounds, or inside the classroom, it will provide enough details about the exact location of the school to such predators. They can easily use that information to locate your child. It is better, hence, to avoid posting these kinds of pictures online.
2. Pictures with name tags
Parents should refrain from sharing pictures that include their children's names. The problem is, you may not even realize you have done that. Imagine this: you’ve gone to receive your child from the school and click a photo of her coming out of the school. However, you don’t realize that her name tag, which is pinned to her uniform, is also clearly visible on the photograph.
In fact, even pictures of your child from a school event or one where they are holding up a report card are risky as they can reveal their identity. If you have to share such pictures, just make sure that you blur out the name on the tag (along with those present on any other children on the image) before posting.
3. Pictures showing other people's kids
This is something that a lot of parents might be unintentionally doing. You click a picture of your child playing with other kids on the playground. It’s a beautiful and heartwarming picture showing your child kicking a ball with a great smile on his face. That picture deserves to be shared with the world, right? But, hold on a second.
Did you think about the other kids in the picture? Remember, that every parent has their own position on sharing their children's faces on the internet. Thus, before you post such pictures online, make sure you have the permission of other parents to do so and be respectful of the stances of the other families involved.
If, for instance, you don’t know the parents of the other kids involved in the image (maybe it’s from a birthday party your child attended), the ideal thing would be to blur out the other faces and any other details that can reveal their identity or location.
4. Pictures that reveal your child’s uncovered body
Wanted to share that picture of your little one splashing around in the tub? It’s so adorable, after all, right? But, as we mentioned above, the online world is more dangerous than most of us even realize. A picture of your child’s partially covered or naked body can attract predators and can easily end up in the wrong hands. Yes, that sounds horrific and unimaginable, but such unsavory things do happen quite frequently these days.
Moreover, these photos may seem cute to you but may prove embarrassing for your child a few years down the road as it was posted in the public domain. So, is it really worth all the risks? If a photo might be considered embarrassing, unflattering to your child later on, or if it seems like it should be private, then respect your child and keep that image in your photo library.
5. Pictures with geotagging
There’s nothing wrong with sharing frequent updates about the time you spend with your children on social media. However, do keep in mind that posting pictures online can reveal the metadata of your photos. Metadata, or EXIF data, provides information about the time and place a picture was taken. This information can be used to track and locate your child. Thus, whatever platform you use to share the pictures of your child, just remember to turn off geotagging and metadata for all your pictures, particularly those featuring your kids.
Another good idea would be to change the privacy settings on all your social media accounts so that you share the pictures of your children only with the people you know are trustworthy.
6. Pictures that show your kid throwing tantrums
When your kid becomes frustrated or annoyed at something, it can often come across as adorable or hilarious to the adults. You may find it so funny that you felt like uploading it on all your social media accounts. We might forget that even though the picture may be funny to us, that particular moment might have caused a lot of distress to the child. In fact, it may well have been a moment of misery for the little one. We should hence not laugh at those feelings and, more importantly, allow others to laugh at it publicly by posting such pictures.
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