Do you ever think twice before posting photos of your child online?

[hkstudios]

Lately I've been feeling a bit uneasy about posting pictures of my little one on social media. I love sharing moments but something about putting their face out there publicly doesn't sit right with me, especially with everything going on with AI these days.

Just wondering if other parents feel the same way or if I'm completely overthinking it. Do you post freely, use private accounts, or do something else? What goes through your mind before you hit share?

I never share anything that they might be embarrassed about in the future. My Facebook is private. But other than that I don't worry about it as people see them all the time and there are CCTV cameras and ring doorbells everywhere.

I never post pictures of my kids online as I don't have social media.

I don't give permission for school to do it either.

It isnt compulsory!

Never do it.
My DC are adults now but when they were little I started posting the odd photo. I stopped many years ago and deleted all old photos.

I don't so any.

Most you've ever seen in the back of the head!

Yes, i dont share pictures online. I only share pictures with friends and family privately. They don't plaster these on social media either and I havent given permission for school/ nursery to share either.

I don't because it seems like commodifying them in a weird way.

I used to post my dc online a lot when they were babies and toddlers. Then one day, when dd was 5 years old (and ds 1 yo), I took a video of dd doing something funny and said that I was going to send it to her dad, and dd immediately said “I don’t want you to put it on your phone” (she meant Instagram), and I reassured her I wouldn’t do that. Anyway, from that day onwards I never posted either child online again, and neither has their dad. That was 8 years ago now, and tbh, if I could go back in time I never would have done it in the first place.

This ^

We have zero pics of kids online and no permission for school to use.

The only place I post them is family WhatsApp group.

I would recommend not posting photos of your little ones @hkstudios. There are horrible people on the internet, and it's better not to chance anything. Photos and videos are reserved for family and close friends. To be fair, we don't post anything of ourselves with my wife, either.

I think once and don’t do it. Never had.

At 14 DS is weirded out by his friends’ baby photos appearing on social media timelines, and is glad that his don’t.

That's a really interesting way to look at it. I hadn't thought about it like that!

Never have, never will.

I am sure there will be endless counselling sessions and even legal action against their parents by today's cute insta tots.

Totally unnecessary and a gross breach of their privacy.

Never posted any of my DC on social media.

I don't personally put on any photos on social media of myself or my children.
I do allow some clubs to post photos but I check what type of photos they put up first. Any that are action shots taken from a distance where you can't always tell which child is which I allow but any club that puts close up photos I don't let them use the photos with them in

Very similar. A year ago DS (then 9) saw a picture of himself pop up on Facebook and asked me, very shocked, why are their pictures of me on the Internet??

Just hearing it phrased like that, from my child, really made me think about what I'd been doing. I stopped sharing pics of my kids online since that. It's such an odd thing we've all been doing, and I suspect our kids won't thank us for it

The main worries are a) them being embarrassed when older, and b) their photos being compiled and used for something sinister.

The former is easily tackled by not posting anything embarrassing!

The latter is much more difficult. There was a case where a woman's photos were used to make a porn website entirely dedicated to just her, without her knowledge. Her SM was private, but one of her 'friends' had passed on all her photos and they'd been edited/AI-ed. That could easily happen to a child. There are some countries in the world where this is a huge problem.

I wonder if AI will actually resolve this issue eventually. What's the point in using real images and committing a crime, when you can just AI and imaginary person and use their image instead? But in the meantime I don't have my children on SM or anywhere online. I am okay with shots without their face, and okay with huge group shots or images from galas or school events etc, where their face is only small and wouldn't be clear enough to be used for anything sinister.

I have never posted a photo of my child online. It's a huge infringment on their privacy. I don't really get the whole 'sharing' thing. The people that matter and actually want to see photos of your child can't be sent them via email etc.
You should feel uneasy.

We have never put pictures of our son on social media for the reasons PPs have given - but also because of risks from developments in AI.

Never have, never would and I can’t for the life of me understand why on earth people would do that. Why would you want your children’s faces online forevermore visible to any strangers. They did not give consent.

It was bad enough when your Mum used to get out the family photo albums and show your new boyfriend the ones of you as a kid - this is on a whole other level of power imbalance.

(edited for typo)

I used to do it, probably without thinking much about the consequences to be honest as everyone else was doing it but after some reading and reflecting on my own part, I don't any more and have deleted old images.

I

What do people think will happen if someone sees your child’s face?

Do you have photographs up in your home? Do people sometimes visit?

My pet peeve is people who put photos up and put emojis or blur the child’s face. What is the point of that?!

I posted photos of them until they were about 5. Then my dad - who I don’t get on with - decided to make one his profile photo and it was liked by about 40 people I’d never heard of. I never posted any more after that because it felt out of my control.

Have you actually read the thread? PP have said what their reasons are.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm21j341m31o

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpdlpj9zn9go

No way would I post images of children online. It's a complete breach of their privacy.

When my kids were small 20 years ago I'd never have guessed that people could use AI to scrape images from the web and turn them into pornography. God knows what will be possible 20 years from now. The fact you can't imagine any harm doesn't mean there won't be any. Just no.