“Sharenting”
The safety and digital footprint of your children
How are you exposing your children on social networks?
It is usual for parents to share photos of their kids on social networks innocently, without thinking about privacy considerations and possible future consequences.
Sharenting is the English term that arises from the union of the verb To Share and Parenting and is used to define a new phenomenon through which parents publish a lot of content (photos, audios, videos) on their social networks.
Digital identity is the trace that each person leaves on the Internet as a result of their interaction on networks, with other users, online purchases and other actions. In the US, 92% of children already have a digital identity at the age of 2 and before they turn 5, each boy or girl has approximately 1,000 photos of themselves on various social networks. So by the time these boys and girls have a chance to form their own identity online, they will already have one..
Risks of “Sharenting”
When you upload a photo of your children to networks, you give more information than you can imagine, such as: where they are, with whom, the time, their tastes, ages, etc.
Another example, the innocent photos of the naked child on the beach, or during his first bath can become child pornography.
There may also be “digital kidnapping”, that is, their photos are used by other people to pretend that they are their children or that they are minors wanting to interact with other minors.
The good news is that you can share material following some basic premises to protect them in some way.
It is recommended that the social networks be private, with the highest level of security that the platform allows and only admit highly trusted family or friends and explicitly request, not share with third parties.
If you decided that your young children (3 to 12 years old) have social networks, they must have full access to them, pre-authorize what they publish, have control of admissions to friends and meet personally the friends who are in their networks. Friendships “from far away”, groups, etc, can become a problem since their intentions are unknown.
Remember that Facebook, Instagram, Tok Tok, Snapchat, Twitch and other apps do not allow children under 13 years of age on their networks.
It is important that you explain the reason for these actions. It is not an excuse to invade their privacy but rather an attempt to preserve it.
Teens already have their own networks and its recommended that parents minimize sharing information about their kids, It is important to remember that during adolescence the image is very important and a «bad photo» can cause an image and identity «crisis» in the adolescent person.
In general, for security, privacy, etc., ask yourself the following questions before posting:
- Could this picture embarrassed my kid with friends, family or colleages?
- Could this give more information that I don’t want to share?
- Could it harm him at school or another place?
- Do other people need to see this?
- Should this «special» moment be shared or do we want to keep it just for the family?
When sharing photos also keep in mind the following:
- Photos during early childhood and childhood must be posted from the parents profile. Do not make an account in his name.
- Do not post photos of nude minors, whether they are bathing on the beach or of a newborn.
- Do not give clues that can geolocate children.
- Let your child exclude photos they don’t want you to share. Ask them first and let them comment.
All the information you post about them today, will be their digital footprint tomorrow.
Fuente: epm.iip.ucr.ac.cr