Why Parents Should Be Cautious About Posting Their Kids Online
By Movieguide® Contributor
Online child safety is more important than ever, and experts are providing tips for parents to make sure they aren’t accidentally placing their child in harm’s way.
While posting about our kids on social media is an easy and convenient way to keep friends and family up to date about our lives and is a fun way to celebrate them, some posts can provide bad actors with key information.
“This phenomenon is called ‘sharenting,’ says [Harvard Law School faculty member Leah] Plunkett. Legal scholars in her field use the term — a portmanteau of ‘sharing’ and ‘parenting’ — to describe ‘all the ways that parents, aunts, uncles, teachers, coaches and other trusted adults in a kiddo’s life transmit children’s private information digitally,'” NPR reported.
Internet child safety experts advise parents to check the background of their photos to ensure that there are no identifying marks in the background such as street addresses or your car’s license plate. In a similar vein, they also warn against posting personal information such as your child’s name or the sports team they are on.
This kind of information “could give away information that predators could use to track them down offline,” CNN recently explained.
If a bad actor were to have this information readily available, they could use it to converse with your kids in a way that makes them seem like they know more than a stranger would. This could encourage your children to share more information and find themselves in a dangerous or compromising position.
The experts also caution parents from sharing their child’s favorite activities, as again, even though this seems harmless, it could open a door for a bad actor to relate with your child. Additionally, once your children are old enough, experts advise parents to get their permission before posting about them.
Parents should also consider the privacy settings for their social media accounts. Experts suggest parents who want to frequently post about their children should make their accounts private so they can only be viewed by friends and family who are following them. Many social media platforms also allow users to make specific posts private, so parents could make posts about their children only accessible to their followers.
Because there are so many ways private information reaches the internet, child online safety ultimately rests with preventative measures taken directly by parents in real life. Movieguide® encourages parents to have frequent conversations with their kids about the things they are interacting with online, including directly asking them if anything has been unusual or made them uncomfortable recently. It is only through these conversations that parents can expose these bad actors and protect their children from harm.
Movieguide® previously reported about child internet safety:
Martial artist icon and actor Chuck Norris recently called on parents to take responsibility for protecting their children from harmful online addictions and dangers.
Norris cited several studies which showed how more and more children are spending more and more time online.
According to a study In 2019, Common Sense Media found that 1 in 5 eight-year-olds now have a smartphone. Over 50% of children own a smartphone by age 11.
Moreover, according to the same study, teens spend 7 hours per day on screens.
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