Raising Kids in the Age of Social Media: Think Before You Share

Most people love to share glimpses of their personal lives on social media, ranging from sports activities and delicious food to their successes and other special moments in their lives. This information is generally shared with their network of family, friends and sometimes followers. The reason is usually bond building, since your family and circle of friends may be scattered all around the globe.

Those who are also parents often post pictures of their children from an early age, sometimes even as ultrasounds. Strictly speaking, this means that their children have a digital presence even before they are born. And the sharing doesn't stop there: teething, getting started, potty training, and a wide range of other accomplishments some parents enjoy sharing long before their kids reach their teens.

The phenomenon of (over) sharing of content involving its children on social media has even earned its own name: sharenting (contraction of share - meaning sharing - and parenting , or parenting). If you do a quick search on the web, you will find many articles on this subject. It's okay to feel the need to document your kids' growth, but it's not okay to share all of their waking moments on social media for everyone to see. There are several reasons for this.

Basically, This Information Is Not Yours

Example: they invade their privacy to ensure their safety or to share their triumphs and their moments of pleasure. According to a recent report by England's Commissioner for Children , parents post an average of 1,300 photos and videos of their children before the age of 13.

Although parents share various aspects of their children's lives with the best of intentions, they should give serious thought to the impact that sharing this information might have on their children in the future. As their offspring grow older, some of the photos and details they shared can have far-reaching consequences that they are not yet aware of.

For example, they can share photos of their kids wearing T-shirts showing their support for a party or political cause, which their kids might not want to be affiliated with or even disagree with. when they grow up. In addition, it might prove difficult for them to shake off the reputation that their parents may have unwittingly cultivated for them through inappropriate parental sharing.

While sharing of images of children is at the discretion of parents when they are too young to understand or care, there comes a time when there is a need to discuss posting these images on social media. You should establish a set of rules about what is acceptable and respect their opinions on the matter, including in determining what you post.

If you think the idea is new, you are wrong. Gwyneth Paltrow was called into question by her daughter Apple Martin for not asking for her consent when the actress shared a mother-daughter photo. “Mom, we discussed this. You can't post anything without my consent, ”wrote Apple, then 14.

What Do I Share, And With Whom?

Data on the Internet is, by design, generally searchable, shareable, and durable. In other words, “What happens on the Internet usually does not go away. An important rule of etiquette on the internet that is repeated frequently is that you should think twice about what you are sharing. This is especially true if you are sharing the information of someone else, such as your child.

Still, people tend to forget that something as mundane as sharing a public photo of a child's birthday party could do a lot of harm if the photo ended up in the wrong hands. Let's take a look at how much information such a message can contain. At a minimum, it could include:

a picture of the child, probably with a wish like "Happy 2nd birthday, John!" ",

details that can reveal the location, such as landmarks,

other people participating, since it may be a group photo. This also raises the question of respect for the privacy of others,

a geolocation tag if the parent has not disabled location tracking.

By gathering the information, we have the child's name, date of birth and address. This information can then be used, for example, for identity theft or fraud.

Stacey Steinberg, associate director of the Center for Children and Families, also spoke about the dangers of sharing in his article Sharenting: Children's privacy in the age of social media (or Sharenting: children's privacy in the era social media ) . One of the examples mentioned was of a mother who posted pictures of her twins' toilet training. She later discovered that strangers were accessing these photos, uploading and editing them, and then sharing them on a website used by pedophiles.

FURTHER READING : How Do You Talk About Social Media Safety With Your Kids?

This example and others from Steinberg show that people are sometimes not at all aware of how easily other people can download and store images shared on social media, or how much information they have. contain. Which brings us to the second caption question - who are you sharing these photos with?

The audience for your posts depends on where and who you choose to share them with. If your social media profile is public, anyone who stumbles upon your profile can literally see its content. On the other hand, if you keep it private, only people who belong to your "friends" list or whom you have authorized to follow you can see it. How many of them do you really know? When was the last time you cleaned up your friends or followers list?

Facebook, for example, lets you choose an audience for each of your posts, so you can restrict them to specific family members and selected friends. But this poses its own problems. Can you trust them not to share it in turn? Are you sure they adhere to best practices in cybersecurity and privacy? These are questions parents probably don't ask themselves very often when they post something, but should be asking themselves.

Practice Responsible “Sharenting”?

The best and safest advice is to “don't post anything about your kids on social media”. However, most modern parents would have a hard time complying with it. Flipping through physical photo albums is a thing of the past and bringing them with you to show off to friends and family is proving to be quite impractical. Fortunately, there are ways to share photos while mitigating the risks discussed above.

Do not share anything that may contain personal details or information that could help identify your child: names, first names, addresses, dates of birth.

Turn off location tracking when taking photos so that they are not geotagged.

Be conscientious about how you share the photos. First take a look at your privacy filters and the audience the post is aimed at before sharing it on social media.

Share the photos and information with people you really know and trust, and ask them not to share them further.

Before posting anything, take a step back and think about how what you plan to share will affect your child in the future.

Everyone understands the need to save memories and share them with your loved ones, but you need to do it in a safer and more responsible way. We hope this article has enlightened you about the risks associated with excessive sharenting and the impact it can have on your children's future. Your kids will eventually join social media, so you can start by leading by example. That way, they 'll have a stable base before you strike up a conversation with them about the dangers of social media  and secure your all data and password please protect it with antivirus software and run your pc relaxed.