Parents' opinions about posting photos of their kids on social media range from those completely against to those who think safety concerns are media-led hysteria, writes Amanda Brown
HOW CAREFUL do we need to be about posting pictures of children on social media? Are you for or against putting pictures of your kids on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube? The response of the Irish parenting twitterati to this question ranged from Gemma, who says “I’m totally anti. There are way too many freaks out there with internet access” to Simon, who thinks “only the super paranoid who have been sucked into the media hype are really concerned about images of their kids online.”
So who is right and how much grey is there in between? John Madden is a father of one and a contributor to parenting blog GeekDad on Wired.com. There are varying opinions among his fellow writers as to the proper way to handle this issue. “The consensus seems to be pictures or names, but never both. At least one writer for the blog, through other writing work, has received death threats to her family.” She didn’t panic, Madden says, and they agreed it was unlikely these threats would come to anything, “but I don’t think anyone wants to take that sort of chance with their kids”. For most parents, though, particularly those out of the public sphere, putting pictures of their children on Facebook or Flickr is a natural progression of the photo album.
Jenny Foxe has a boy and a girl, aged five and two. Her mother lives in the US. She posts regular pictures and short videos of her children on her Facebook page so her relations can keep up with them. “My address isn’t on it or anything, so I don’t worry about predators. My privacy settings are on Friends of Friends. So it’s fairly open.”
Foxe’s family are holidaying this year with a family based in the Middle East. She credits Facebook for keeping them all in touch enough to stay this close. While I was talking to her, a message popped up on my Twitter stream from Bernie Goldbach, a Tipperary Institute multimedia lecturer.
“Proof that photos can be your worst nightmare.” It included a link to a website called thisisphotobomb.com. The site showed how a face can be copied and seamlessly placed on someone else’s body.
Photo cropping is even easier than using Photoshop. A year ago the New York Timescarried a worrying story from photographer and mother of two Jessica Gwozdz. A friend had discovered that a picture of Grace, Gwozdz's four-year-old daughter, had been copied from her Flickr account and used on a Brazilian social networking site called Orkut.
“They gave her a fake name, Melodie Cuthbert, and a relationship status that said she was interested in making friends and dating men,” Gwozdz said. Gwozdz’s Flickr account was public.
Rob Lee puts pictures of his little girl, who is almost two, on Facebook for a limited number of friends and family to see. However, his wife is very nervous of posting pictures of their child online.
As sharing and privacy options are available on social media, Conor Rapple from Glasnevin says that “to fear uploading and sharing with friends and family is to give in to relative hysteria fostered in particular by the British media and the perceived nanny state.
However, Lee, also a photographer, points out that most people probably aren’t as aware of privacy settings as they should be, “It’s boring and very confusing – and we are interested in instant things, not boring, complicated things. Look at the success of apps.
“I draw the line at combining large amounts of personal data (particularly geographical) and large volumes of pictures.”
Several other respondents also said they would put up pictures of their children but not names, not bath times and not locations.
One thing everyone I speak to is against is posting photos of other people’s children. RW on Twitter recounts trouble when “a friend put pics of another friend’s child on FB and then pretended they hadn’t”.
Privacy settings A checklist
Facebook Click Account.Click Privacy Settings. Click Friends Only.
YouTube Sign In.Click on your name (top right-hand corner of the screen). Click on My Videos. Next to each video click Edit. Scroll down to Broadcasting and Sharing options. Click Unlisted. To share video copy the URL into an email.
Flickr Click on You.Scroll down. Click on Your Account. There is a long list of settings, but set the top three to Your Friends and or family or Only You.
TwitterTwitter is public by default. You can block individuals from your twitter account. You can also protect your Twitter feed. Protecting your feed means only people who you accept as followers can see your feed and pictures.
