It’s so easy nowadays to share photos of our children and grandchildren online – with the ability to almost instantly post photos in places like Facebook and Instagram, it’s worth thinking about who can see them and what the longer-term implications might be.
We recently read a study by Nominet, which reports some interesting and thought provoking figures. Their poll of 2,000 parents reveals that:
- The average parent shares 1,500 photos of their child before their 5th birthday!
- Less than a quarter of parents knew how to find and amend privacy settings online.
- On average parents upload a picture of someone else’s child nearly 30 times a year.
- The top 3 destinations for sharing are Facebook (54%), Instagram (16%) and Twitter (12%).
This got me thinking. Do I know where to find and amend Privacy Settings in my online accounts? I’m not sure that I do. We’ve spoken to a lot of parents over the years who complained that privacy settings on sites like Facebook are not intuitive or transparent.
Also, how many times have my friends and family members uploaded photos of my children without me knowing, from events like birthday parties and school plays? Do those people know how to control their privacy settings?
It seems to me that there are some important things to consider when sharing photos online:
- When did you last review your social media settings? Here’s how to do it on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
- Remember that when you post a photo of your child, you could be inadvertently posting a photo of another child and their location.
- Photos you post now may be online forever. Will your children appreciate the stream of embarrassing photos when they’re in their twenties?
- Why are you posting the photos to a social network? If you want to share with family or record a child’s life, a Twile family timeline might be a better choice – everything on Twile is private by default (so only visible to your family) and it creates a meaningful timeline of each person’s life
