To think we need new laws relating to social media and the posting of minors?

[FoxBoxSox]

I have a guilty habit of mindlessly scrolling social media videos when bored. I am becoming increasingly more appalled at the level of private information parents share about their DC under the guise of ‘raising awareness’.

Multiple ‘content creators’ share so much information that from their various posts alone, anyone can work out where their DC go to school, what their disabilities are and the extent of these. Private medical information such as how their tween DC wets themselves when distressed or is violent in meltdown , alongside detailed descriptions of their child’s personal worries and conversations had with parents. All plastered for other people to see. The DC themselves are often posted on their ‘stories’ so all of this medical information openly identifies them.

Photos and videos of DC in their most vulnerable moments (in comas , on life support etc). Older DC incapacitated and in nappies, on life support. I completely understand why parents may take these photos for themselves, but posting them to social media is too much. The DC can not consent.

Do these parents not realise that their DC’s peers will see this stuff? It’s such an invasion of privacy and I feel terrible for the DC.

Is it time we had laws to prevent DC being exposed in this way?

I generally agree with this. The only pictures of my kids on social media are on my Friends Only Facebook posts, and all my Facebook friends are people I know IRL.

I don’t understand one thing, though - why pictures of kids in nappies/diapers is supposed to be so especially egregious. There are shirtless, bare-legged babies and toddlers in advertising, on beaches, other places in public. (Were Anne Geddes photographs of babies popular in the UK in the 1990s, like they were in the US?) I can see why it might be embarrassing for a child’s peers to see the picture when the child is older. But I don’t understand the argument that “oh, you shouldn’t post that, because it might arouse pedophiles.”

Pedophiles and other people with sexual fetishes that lead to criminal behavior can be aroused by all kinds of innocent things. If we never photographed anything that might arouse a pedophile, we’d probably have no pictures of children.

I see the argument for not posting pictures or video of kids, especially if someone has a big social media following. But I don’t get, “not only did she post pictures of her children - she posted them wearing just nappies!” I mean, go Google “baby in diaper” or “toddler in diaper.” You’ll find thousands of stock images, many of which are used in mainstream media. This isn’t culturally unusual or risqué.

I think the possibility of children attracting stalkers through social media is more harrowing than the possibility that a pedophile might find images of them sexually arousing.

I think for any law on this to be effective, it also has to becone very socially unacceptable to post certain identifying details, invading a child's right to privacy or private medical information along with pictures. For example, a way for parents to have to acknowledge they accept the risks to children's mental health, physical safety and loss of the child's right to privacy before setting up an account which posts public content featuring / mentioning children above a certain percentage of the time. Adverts which appear alongside these videos for NSPCC etc. Posters / reminders in places parents go with children (schools, Dr offices, play centres etc). It would be very difficult to police or ban child related content completely because it is impossible to identify a precise tipping point where fun / awareness raising becomes dangerous to the child whilst also allowing freedom of expression and for families and friends to keep in touch over long distances.

@YankSplaining a good point about the abundance of stock images of toddlers and babies in nappies.

The posts I am referring to are around the dignity of older children who may have disabilities that require nappies or posts of older children who are medically incapacitated and are put in to nappies to help with bodily functions whilst on life support. These things are private and by parents posting them on social media, they are not affording their DC dignity.

I agree it will be very difficult to police and it’s unlikely we will see any laws anytime soon. I do think we will see more law suits in the futures as these DC become adults and become aware of just how much personal information their parents posted.

Dignity.

Yanbu I can't bear it. I think this generation as adults will have something to say though

Its started already - in some US states, children can retrospectively sue their parents for exploiting them for content. Granted the cases I've heard of were pretty egregious examples ("mommy vlogging" mostly) but it sets a precedent.

Here we want to go after the media giants. It’s the parents in my view. They have responsibilities.

I agree, can you imagine going for a job in future, and your future employer can find everything from the time you wet yourself on Santa's knee, to your first heartbreak, to how you got detention for cheating in a test.

Its abhorrent how some people can monetise from their own kids lives, and deliberately targeting content at pedophiles as well.

One of the worst I saw was a family who had daughters and a son, but the son, allegedly, like wearing dresses, every video was about it, him going to school in dresses etc, and the daughters absolutely left out, it pissed me off so much I blocked them ages ago, but predicted that this poor kid was going to 'come out' as trans at some point (because he was being groomed into it imo) I saw someone talking about it maybe a year later and I was right. Every bit of it has been documented, that kid will never escape it.

So many people (mainly mums) on Instagram in our local area who spend their entire life getting free trips everywhere for meals and days out and haircuts etc in return for a write up and they show videos and photos of their kids daily doing all these free things and apart from the risk of the kids appearing on a public Instagram page every day i also feel sorry for them never seeming to have a normal week of hanging out at home watching tv etc.

It’s also easy to forget what goes in to these videos. If a child is being filmed whilst in hospital for example, it’s easy to forget whilst seeing the final cut, that someone is actually standing there, phone in hand, filming their child this way.

The same with parents who vlog outings to the supermarket with their children; they’re following them around the whole store with a camera watching their every move to catch content. It’s alien to me.

I agree with you- and children with SEN may never be able to speak out or make their wishes known.

I follow some adult equestrian influencers on social media, so occasionally get recommended videos featuring children. There's one very famous child influencer who's mum posted video of her having broken her arm to youtube. She also made her child get back on the pony for prize giving (and photos) rather than taking her to get first aid straight away. Surely any normal mum would want to comfort their distressed child, not film them.

They obviously make a lot of money on social media, and I'm sure the child involved gets a lot of benefit out of the situation BUT equally I do wonder if any money is being put aside for her as an adult, and also about the hours she is "working" and the pressure she is under.

There's another one I've posts from on Facebook who talks very openly about her daughter's struggles with school etc. This is a 5yo child, who can't really consent to this sort of information being shared. She might not want people to know those sorts of details about her!

Regardless of how hard it might be to enforce I do think there needs to be rules around safeguarding children "working" as influencers and the children of influencers, both in terms of what is shared about them, but also in terms of making sure some of the money they earn is put in trust for them. I also think that some of these children probably have to "work" long hours etc to produce content- so there should also be rules around working hours etc.

I accept it would be difficult to enforce, but if laws were in place at least it would make it easier to force companies to take down inappropriate photos and videos etc.

Cross posted, but that's how I feel about the parent involved in the situation I mentioned.

Instead of worrying about her daughter's safety or comforting her, her first instinct was to ensure she got photos for instagram, and then to film her daughter whilst getting first aid and then again in A & E. In some of the video her daughter is clearly distressed and in pain.

I also think how much must get filmed that we don't see in these situations. If the child says they don't want to be filmed, we'd never see it.

Banning the filming of children in hospitals would be relatively easy.

Maybe reporting to social services would be a better course of action?