To Share/Not To Share Images of DC Online?

[BabyBunnyMama]

I have shared a few pictures of my DD since she was born (now 8 months) but always been cautious - nothing that would embarrass her etc. However starting to feel uneasy about it so have started removing them now and just keeping up my monthly pictures of her with her milestone sticker and a couple of her during family days out. Going forward I think I will continue like this - or stop posting on social media all together.

Just curious how others feel about sharing images of their DC?

I send emails / one to one Whatsapp to family with pictures but I don’t feel the need to do a public SM account.

Nothing shared here until he was in his teens at a family event, and he's not tagged.

Now he competes at a sport so he's occasionally posted in a closed group but they tag me and has been mentioned in the local paper a few times. This was a deliberate decision for us, I think its a massive gift to him that we have protected his privacy for him. I know lots of people feels differently though. There are ways of sharing photos without posting them publically.

I dont use sm much, however i fail to see how photos of kids in fb at an event for example are any different to photos of your kids in the local paper or newsletter at local fetes etc. Whats the difference

I get that once they are on there then Facebook has them, which is why I only post photos which I'd be happy to have on a billboard at the end of my street, if you see what I mean. But I don't understand the thing about my child's future employers seeing the photos?

If I post a photo of my son to my Facebook, which is visible to only my friends and family and he isn't tagged in it - then how can his hypothetical boss in 20 years time see that photo? Also I think the people worrying about this must be posting different kinds of photos to me... my most recent one was a picture of my son dressed up for a christening - I'm not sure how this would have a negative impact on his job prospects?

Mine are grown now so were babies before social media was a thing, but I have never put pictures of them online and never put pictures of myself or adult family members online either. I can never understand how others can be so blasé about their privacy.

We do sometimes send photos via e-mail to family and friends but never anything public.

I think a lot of people overshare on FB, which includes pictures of kids.

Over the years ive seen a change, 10 or so years ago there were loads of baby pics on FB, there seem to be fewer now because I think people are a bit wiser about putting stuff online.

You have no idea whos looking at the pictures, also, in reality I dont believe peoples FB's are as 'locked down' as they think. People may have wider social circles than me, but i'd say I know and trust about 30 or so people. Are peoples FB's really restricted to that? Or do they have people they barely know, but they work in the same office?

I also strongly believe in right to consent. As soon as the kids are old enough to choose to post stuff online, they can. I wont be doing it.

I'm just interested, because it's not an approach I've encountered in RL...what is it that people are worried about in terms of sharing photos online?

What is it that you think will / might happen?

My friend shared photos of hers but never their faces which I guess is a good compromise, so she will post photos of them leaning over colouring etc. Any full face photos have an emoji over them

I put photos of my daughter on Facebook every day. We have family all over the country so it’s the easiest way of letting them all see photos of her. I never print photos either so I like it as a way to keep them.

What is it that you think will / might happen?

In terms of children? That when they're older they'll be embarrassed by the photos. Once they're adults they can choose for themselves if they want to share baby/childhood pictures with boy/girlfriends etc. It isn't my place as a parent to make that choice for them.

In terms of myself? I'm just a very private person. I don't want an online presence at all. I only use forums if I can be anonymous and only give personal details where there is an actual need, eg Amazon have my address for deliveries, Social media companies like Facebook are too damn nosey for my liking.

But as parents we make every single other choice for our DC so it seems odd to me that we single this thing out as 'we can't do X without them having a choice'.

Children don't have a choice about anything - and much more fundamental things than this like where they live, who they live with, whether they eat meat or not, etc, etc.

We’ve had a NC adult meet with a child through FB using photos of their younger siblings as a way to ‘bait’ them. Making out there was a relationship with their parent that was not there.

where they live, who they live with, whether they eat meat or not

You're really comparing that with putting them on social media/facebook? Wow. Really?