Warning to folks over posting snaps of youngsters on-line – however not everybody agrees

Parents have been cautioned about sharing photos of their children on social media, but the advice has sparked debate.

The warning was issued during a discussion on Mumsnet, a popular online platform where parents swap advice and discuss dilemmas. The community was left divided when one mum asked whether others posted pictures of their young kids on social media.

She said: “I occasionally post pics of my kids on FB and instagram. Maybe once or twice a year. I occasionally do stories too. Maybe 3 to 4 times a year.”

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She said she believed keeping the posts infrequent was “fine”, but added some people never post pics of their youngsters – while others shared pics much more frequently.

She then invited other users to share their views, reports the Mirror. One user who works with the police revealed they refused to share photos of their children. “I don’t post any pictures of my DC (dear child),” they wrote.

“I work for the police dealing with child exploitation though, so I am much more alert to the misuse of pictures than others are. I would also hate it if someone put pictures of me up without my consent, and that is in effect what someone is doing whenever they post a photo of a child.”

However, not everyone agreed. One wrote: “I post pics of my kids. One of my cousins posted lots of themselves before child was born and since (6 years ago? ) they post nothing of selves or child. I am curious how that turns out.”

Meanwhile another chimed in: “Children shouldn’t be put online. They can’t tell you what photos or posts they like or approve of. What information they don’t mind you sharing with the world.

“Imagine if every detail of your childhood was online for the world to see? Would you be happy that your friends and work colleagues had seen a video of your first wee on the potty? Or a video of you having a tantrum over something that your mum thought was funny at the time?”

However, another parent took a more relaxed approach. They said: : “I don’t think my children are going to mind a pic of them with their birthday cake… it’s not a big deal to post a pic with a birthday cake. I doubt they’re going to lose out on jobs when they’re older because of their 2nd birthday pic online.”

Online privacy expert Trevor Cooke from EarthWeb previously warned Yahoo! News about the risks of posting kids’ images online/ He said: “Even with strict privacy settings, these images could be stolen, copied, altered, or spread forever across the internet, meaning you completely lose control of who sees your child and what they do with their image.”

He continued: “Scammers have even taken out loans in the name of children under the age of five ruining their credit before they’re even old enough to use money.”

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