Posting their cute photos or checking into places with them is not as charming at it apparently looks like.
When it’s about oversharing on social media, it’s not just the kids who are guilty. From bathroom selfies to step-by-step relationship status updates, we all have learnt a lot of hacks to spill the beans, and that too a little too much.
The bitter truth is: We know most of the times that a certain post or status could land us in hot water; we know the vulnerabilities our online stance in most, but somewhere, we are too inclined to live controversial lives, or at least, let other presume that there is something going on in our lives. We don’t want others to know that our lives are stagnant, and that’s when we try everything that we could to make ourselves more visible in others’ Newsfeed, even if that requires us sharing our kids’ photos and compromising on their privacy.
Your son just won a trophy for his first-ever soccer championship; well, that calls for his picture on the Facebook, holding on the trophy. Right?
Your daughter just won the first place for her science quiz at school, so posting a picture of her shaking hand with her principals seems like an achievement, no?
It’s actually seem quite innocent and fine, but in reality, there are so many risks associated with posting your kids’ photos online.
These are the six reasons why you should refrain from talking about your child or posting their photos online.
- Sexual Predators Get Excited
So what’s the guarantee that no one on your friends list is a sexual predator, or a pedophile, to be precise. Online security experts are warning parents over and over again that parents should never post photos of their kids online. Donna Rice Hughes, who is CEO of Enough Is Enough, a non-profit organization aimed at improving the digital security of the kids warns parents to never post photos of their kids online as it can give sexual predators access to some vital information about their kids.
This all makes sense. Let’s say you post a photo of your child’s first day at school, with your child standing in front of the school sign. How convenient would it be for someone like a sex offender to know how your child looks like and which school they go to.
And even if your privacy settings are set to “Only Friends”, it doesn’t make a much difference, as I aforementioned, you never know how many wolves are hiding there on your friends’ list, you have no idea about it.
- It’s a bad example for your kids
Parents who are obsessed with sharing everything on the internet don’t have a very strong stance when it comes to holding their kids back from oversharing. As a parent, you need to tell your kids’ role models when setting the boundaries of sharing on social media. But when recklessly broadcast everything, you are basically, taking away that privilege from yourself.
- Your child becomes prone to identity theft
Have your ever come across those cheesy ads about websites for “attractive and sexy local teens”. Well, the reality is that those pictures may absolutely have nothing to do with the kids who are the face of the advertisement.
According to online privacy advocates, if your child’s photo is posted online, there are malicious website owners who don’t care about whose picture they are downloading and using as a clickbait. It has already happened to many parents across U.S. and it could happen to your kids too if you aren’t being attentive about what you or your child is posting on social media.
- The risks of online bullying have increased
The possibility of online bullying aggrandizes when your child is habitual of posting their photos online. Have you heard of the digital footprints? Well, it says that whatever you post online is going to stay in the online world for a very long time, or maybe, forever. For instance, a funny and adorable photo of your child might be praised by your family members, but for an online comedian, it’s not more than another calling card that they could use to entertain their fans. This has happened to kids in the past; ruthless online jokers destroying lives of teens with their snarky captions.
- Your child has to face more competition
In a revealing, and rather an appalling study, parents post at least a thousand photos of their child before they turn five.
This competition of photo sharing can make your child feel like a crap, not realizing that whatever we are seeing about others’ lives on social media is a glimpse of some perfect moments out of their imperfect lives. It’s not the entire reel, but it’s hard to figure that out, because no parent is going to post temper-tantrum or snotty-nose moments of their children online.
- Your child misses the moment when you tell them to pose
Have your ever taken a picture of your food arriving on your table while you are out to dine out at some fancy restaurant. Well, a lot of us do that, not realizing that the food gets cold by the time we are done with the photo shoot.
Same happens when we tell our kids to pose during some valuable moments. Have your ever asked yourself if your child really had fun when you told them to sit against the sunset so that you could take their photo. Well, how can they, when they are stuck in the same position, posing?
There is no use of capturing memories when you fail to live them. If the only thing that you could remember by looking at some old photo is you posing for the photo, then it’s just a clue that you missed the original moment.
Do you like sharing photos of your kids online? Would these points make your reconsider that? Let us know what you think about it.
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