To think FB posts about children should be banned?

[MagicKingdomDizzy]

Or any social media content?

A bit contentious perhaps. But the amount of Facebook, instagram, Twitter posts I have seen about a child, containing personal information and pictures and open to the public is very high.

Today I saw a post on Facebook. A woman's toddler had been in a car accident. What followed was a very dramatic in depth post about it, along with pictures of the poor child on a hospital bed, covered in tubes, blood and bruising.

How is this allowed, and why do people even do it? To post pictures of your child at their most vulnerable and without their consent (of course at that age they can't give it) is awful.

Should there be stricter regulations in place regarding children and social media? I feel like there should be!

I don't understand why 100s of other people also needed to know.

Why are you assuming everybody has 100's of followers/friends on their social media?

I have a fb friend (someone I went to school with) who has an 11 year old daughter. I was friends with her on FB before she had her DD so have seen her DD grow up. Have never met her (the DD) but would know her if I bumped into her.
She is forever posting photos and her DD is always posing. Even in photos which are supposedly 'candid'. She posts a picture regularly of her DD 'asleep' in a certain position, holding something really delicate in her hand. Her hair is always perfect, her makeup is done and nails painted. It's so, so fake and obvious too!
I mean, crack on with the nice hair and makeup etc but it's the "oh my little baby has fallen asleep in the middle of the park/playground/museum holding this lady bird/feather/birds egg" which is so annoying.
Her DD appears to like being posed like this as she is 11 and always goes along with it.
Just strange behaviour.

I don’t think they should be banned no, I just think parents need to be a little more thoughtful before posting the kinds of pictures they do.
I have a Facebook friend who posts 3/4/5/6 pictures or videos of their child most days, usually with some witty caption. This can range from what sort of mood the child has woken up in or what they have eaten etc etc. I can’t help but think the child will be very unhappy in years to come as some of the pictures are very unflattering, but are out there for all to see!

”You’re extremely naive if you think having your privacy settings turned up to 11 will somehow protect you. This is Facebook, a quick google on Cambridge Analytica shows you that however you use the medium you are compromising your data just by logging in.”

So glad you wrote this comment @WipeYourFeetOnTheRhythmRug

My rule is ‘never upload anything on social media that you are not prepared for the whole world to see’.

As soon as you upload a pic to social media that site owns the pic.

They are known to sometimes sell the pics! True story.

Nothing is 100% on lockdown no matter how good your privacy settings are.

I’ve witnessed a Facebook glitch where everyone’s accounts were open for all to view.

For those of you that don’t share the location etc you might need to research geo-tagging.

Regardless of their future, it’s a safeguarding issue for the right now. One of my vague FB friends that I hardly know and haven’t spoken to for years, posts constantly about his children. I hardly pay attention to these posts, yet I once spotted said children in the street then, absent mindedly, said hello to them both, using their names. They said hi back and mum looked bemused (I’ve never met her!)

I suddenly remembered that I don’t actually know those children and scuttled off as quickly as I could.

A lot of parents post far too much information about their DC online for too many people to see. It’s quite scary.

Social media thrive on people's vanity, narcissism, obsession with the offspring and the universal desire to be liked /envied etc. Not having a Facebook account might help, I swear by it. And yes, posting pictures of young children who can't even consent should be banned for many good reasons.

YANBU it's gross and sympathy fishing

I agree with you OP. I don't know how it could be enforced though.

I cringe at some of the things people post involving their children. The YouTube family vloggers who put their kids on YouTube daily and have millions of subscribers doesn't sit well with me at all. I do wonder how it will affect the children when they're older.

I am so glad I grew up before Facebook & other SM was a thing. My parents are worse than me for living their lives through Facebook and would have had no filter wrt photos I would later find intensely embarrassing. Bad enough when they did an actual old fashioned slideshow of holiday snaps or got an actual album out to show guests but at least guests couldn't take that away with them....

It’s treating your children as your property and using them as vessels to show off or garner sympathy. It’s actually shocking. They don’t stay toddlers for long. No way would I post pics of my 13 year old.

I think parents should be mindful about the information they share about their children that could more easily assist in disclosing answers to security questions: name of first school; name of first pet; road they grew up on; mother’s maiden name; date of birth etc. I am aware of a parent over-sharer of pictures of her child and wonder whether the child will be mortified one day to discover the documentation about his life events and various pictures of him in pyjamas and with humorous facial expressions...perhaps fodder for bullies one day.