Why are some parents choosing not to share photos of their children on social media?

[RedRobyn2021]

Someone I know has just made a status announcing they've had their baby but won't be sharing pictures at least not until they are older

And come to think of it, I know a few people who have not even shared their child's name

I don't even have many Facebook friends but after I had my baby I did a sweep of my Facebook and removed a bunch of people so now I have maybe 200 people on there that I know.

I don't post loads of pictures of my daughter but I post maybe every couple of months a photo or a story

Is that ok? Should I not be doing this?

Feel a bit upset like maybe I'm a bad mum and should have considered more carefully

Should I take them down?

@Bumpy23

I don't mind school doing pictures doing normal things, when I was younger I was in the paper along with loads of school children which I think is a similar thing. But I don't post on FB personal pics, birthdays etc. They can do that when they're ready.

It's not a similar thing. Before the internet only local people would have read that paper, and only one day.and.then the paper would have been binned. Now anyone in the world can see those school photos and they won't be binned.

Privacy reasons. I work in child protection and some of the stories I've come across are horrendous. No way I'm putting my children at risk.

I haven't "chosen not to share". Posting photos on SM is.not the default position

@AntiHop

I do put photos of my dcs on Facebook. I never put anything that they might be embarrassed by in the future. I like looking my previous photos when the memories come up, and I like looking at the photos that other people share.

Well that might be nice, but surely you have saved those photos yourself and can look at them any time you like?

It's not a similar thing. Before the internet only local people would have read that paper, and only one day.and.then the paper would have been binned. Now anyone in the world can see those school photos and they won't be binned.

A lot of schools nowadays have a SM presence as well Twitter, FB, the school's own website. Presumably parents that are so conscious about their child's SM presence would read any permission forms very carefully . Despite the forms though, there have been quite a few issues especially with Covid and how things could be presented/accessed.

[quote Unavailableusername]@ElvisPresleyHadABaby

What are your thoughts on private WhatsApp chats to family? Secure ? Thanks. Your post is hard to read but so important.[/quote]
No not secure. And obviously Whatsapp are owned by FB.

[quote supermoonrising]@Beees
He cannot consent to them being on there
Meh. Kids don’t get to decide most stuff that happens.. Who there parents are, where they live, their upbringing, what school they go to, what their diet is, etc. A picture of a kid smiling at the camera is just a kid smiling at the camera. There are 8 billion people in the world. Nobody cares apart from possibly a couple of dozen friends/relatives, and FB is just a convenient way to share a few photos with them.[/quote]
It wouldn't take you much longer to email them .

It never ceases to amaze me how much info people give away online about their dcs. Heres how it goes 'Happy 9th birthday to my lovely (insert name'. SO now you've given your dcs name, date of birth, possibly their surname (from yours if the same) and possibly the area where you. Add in a photo with a school uniform and bingo, someone has a lot of info on your child. Scary isn't it? That's the main reason I don't post any photos.
Apart from that, my family and friends who know my dcs, see photos of them anyway if I want them to, in other ways. I don't need to portray them on facebook.

I don't think it's scary, my FB friends would know that info anyway. It's nice if you live close to all your family, but we don't.

My children asked me not to, so I don’t.

I work in a school and we hold detailed image consent for each child. I would say that about 10% opt out of their child appearing on our social channels.

Of those that do opt out, many of them do post pics of their children on their own socials but don't want them on our public school pages.

This thread implies that hardly anyone posts pics of their children, but that's not my experience in reality. In fact, we get more comments that their child isn't features enough, than the other way round!

I think it's fine if you have a private account - i don't as I think it's so boring looking at other people's kids!