When we think of kids and social media, we often think of the bad things, like cyber-bullying, cyber-predators and over-sharing of personal details that can leave our kids vulnerable. But what happens when it’s not the kids who are over-sharing on social media, but the parents?
When does sharing a photo of your kid doing something goofy on your Facebook, Instagram or blog, (or all three!), go from being something cute and lighthearted to something potentially embarrassing and upsetting for your family?
In a recent news story from the States, a Mum has copped criticism for posting a photo of her daughter online that has since gone viral, in order to ‘shame’ her for cyber-bullying actions. In the image, the daughter, Hailey is holding up a sign that reads, “My name is Hailey. I am a kind, caring, smart girl, but I make poor choices with social media. As punishment, I am selling my iPod and will be donating the money to the charity Beat Bullying in hopes of changing my behaviour as well as bringing awareness to bullying. Because bullying is wrong.”
When this Mum decided, rightly or wrongly, to post this image of her errant daughter online to teach her a lesson, she would have had no idea that it would have caused the media sensation that it has. This photo of her daughter could have just ended up being another imgur file, only seen by a few hundred or maybe a few thousand people. But when the image was picked up by the website, reddit, suddenly she has made her daughter world news.
While this is an extreme form of over-exposure of kids on social media, it does highlight an underlying issue. When we post images of our kids online, unless we employ strict privacy controls, we don’t actually have much power over who sees them and for what purpose. While we can make many of our social media accounts private, what happens if you’re a blogger who decides to show images of your kids on your blog? Is there an age where should stop posting photos of our kids online without expressly asking them?
This question of age-appropriateness was one that was recently addressed in the Aussie blogosphere when a prominent Aussie Mum blogger made the decision to stop posting photos of her son on her site. Despite her blog being heavily populated with images of her young son since its inception, she’d decided that since he had just started school, he had ‘outgrown’ her blog space and so she would no longer be including photographs of him on her site. In this case, the age of asking consent started at five, but what age, if any, do you think should be the ‘cut off’ for being able to exhibit images of your kids in your social media world?
Do you share photos of your kids on social media? Do you think about how they would react if they saw these images in a few years when they’re older? What do you share, and what wouldn’t you?
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