The risks of sharenting: why it's better to think twice before sharing images of our children online
Showing photos and videos of your children is a source of satisfaction for most parents. It must be said that in this day and age, sharing images online with family and friends has become particularly easy, thanks in particular to social media. This phenomenon has been called sharenting (contraction of the English words sharing and parenting).
However, this practice involves significant risks, because what you publish on the Internet stays there forever. This content can also be misused by people with bad intentions.
Whether they are celebrating a birth, a communion, a secular holiday or a fancy-fair, parents are happy to share images of their children online. Sharenting is now very widespread on social networks. However, we do not always give enough thought to the consequences that this practice can have.
Even if you delete everything you have published online, there is always a trace of it somewhere. Once a piece of content has been published on the internet, it stays there forever. Photos are spreading at breakneck speed, that's a fact.
Some ill-intentioned people deliberately seek out this type of image. Thanks to the meteoric evolution of artificial intelligence, creating deepfakes or deepnudes has become child's play. There is also a risk that these images will be used for sextortion, revenge porn or grooming in order to create a fake profile, blackmail people, etc.
Photos often make it clear where they were taken. Some ill-intentioned people will even try to make physical contact with their potential victims, for example by standing in front of their school or sports club.
The right to privacy also applies to minors. Of course, a parent cannot ask a newborn for permission, but from the age of 7-8, children can easily give their opinion. It is essential that minors are consulted when photos of them are posted on the Internet. Misappropriated images can always resurface, during a job interview, in a situation of harassment at school or at work, etc.
Be careful what you post!
Before sharing photos of minors online, it is worth asking yourself a series of questions:
- Is the child recognizable?
- Avoid posting photos in which the child's face is clearly recognizable.
- Is it possible to locate the child?
- Avoid photos in which the name of the school, sports club, street or municipality can be clearly distinguished.
- Will the child still approve of this publication x years later?
- Ask your child if they agree to certain photos being published.
- Do I know all the people who can see these images?
- Configure your account privacy settings so that only the people the photos and videos are intended for can see them.
- A golden rule: think twice (or more) before posting anything. What you share today may still circulate tomorrow. By sharing your content responsibly, you reduce the risk of abuse and keep you and your child safe and private.
What to do if you are a victim?
- File a complaint with the Local Police in your neighbourhood.
- Visit Child Focus, the go-to centre for online sexual exploitation, whose toll-free hotline (116,000) is available 24/7. If intimate images of your child have been disseminated on the Internet, the organization can, thanks to its privileged contacts with the main social networks (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, etc.), help you quickly remove them from the web. You can find more information about this on childfocus.be.