SHARENTING
As we proudly post updates on our children, we could be exposing them to hidden dangers...
From ultrasounds to due date announcements and baby showers, a child’s digital footprint starts before birth. Parents are revealing far more information about their children online than ever before.
Yearly, 1.3 billion images of children under the age of 16 are floating about on social media.
The phenomenon is labelled ‘sharenting’ – the act of sharing pictures of your kids online. How much sharing is too much? Barclays has forecast that by 2030, sharenting will account for two thirds of identity fraud.
With just a name, date of birth and address, criminals can store this information until a person turns 18 and then begin opening accounts.
Strangers can also create fake social
Pictures last forever media accounts and hunt down vulnerable children. Privacy is a thing of the past. Research from internet security provider Mcafee found that over half of parents are concerned about paedophiles accessing images they post of their child, over a third worry about kidnapping and over a quarter worry about cyberbullying.
And yet, 30% of parents share images of children publicly online.
Social media can be a source of support and communication with family and friends.
Online platforms store and share memories forever, in good ways
and bad.
We now document our children’s daily routines, embarrassing moments and memorable milestones. The rise of
sharenting has also created a booming career for many parents.
Mummy bloggers have turned their families into businesses.
It’s not just parents that are sharing information about their kids, but toys and smart tablets, too.
In 2017, children’s toy Cloud Pets posed a cyber-security threat.
Their teddies allowed parents and children to communicate via stored voice messages.
Over 800,000 messages were found to be illegally recorded and shared online.
The company is now out of business, but the alreadystolen data has been misused by unauthorised parties.
In 2018, the UK Children’s Commissioner released a report called ‘Who Knows About Me?’ to highlight the ways we share children’s data, and how that may put childrens’ futures at risk.
It was estimated that by the age of 13, parents have already posted 1,300 photos online.
Parents are already some of the biggest violators of their own kids’ privacy.
Unbeknown to you, your social media posts could attract dangerous people.
In 2015, mum blogger Lindsey Paris discovered a fraudulent social media account had been created with images of her own child.
The account was pretending that her son was their own.
The blogger contacted the account to find out that it was a 16-year-old girl in California, proving that anyone can be a criminal of fraud.
There is little understanding of how personal data gathered in childhood might be used to shape a child’s prospects in the long term – for better or for worse.
Could a child talking about mental health problems on social media affect their ability to take out
World leaders in cyber security solutions AVG have shared five tips for proud parents wanting to share their family photos online…
1. Ensure the settings on your social channels allow you to share with family and friends only, to reduce the chance of your photo being misused without your control.
health insurance in the future?
Could early educational data online play a role in their university application outcome?
We don’t know the future consequences of our sharenting actions today.
Funny, innocent social media posts could be used for bullying and teasing.
In 2017, more than one million children were victims of identity theft or fraud.
Two thirds of those victims were age seven or younger.
And who knows where the children’s photos ended up...
Often, images of innocent children turn up on disturbing websites and forums for child pornography.
Some scammers even create
Anyone can own a studio online fantasy worlds with images of children.
This is known as illegal digital kidnapping. Instagram users ‘roleplay’ with photos, with hashtags #KIDRP, #Babyrp and #Orphanrp to make up fantasy children and people. Sometimes, people roleplay
as the child, making up background stories and interacting with others. In ‘family’ roleplay accounts,
multiple people interact with each other, pretending to be couples, siblings or parents. Not many role play accounts
appear dangerous, but it is against Instagram’s policies to steal other users’ photos.
In 2014, thousands signed a Change.org petition calling for Instagram to put an end to the baby and child role play accounts, but nothing came of the appeal.
As the volume of personal data being shared online has increased, data privacy has climbed up the political agenda.
Internet safety was made a compulsory part of the school curriculum in 2014.
But, with the proliferation of social media and technology, policymakers are struggling to keep up with developments.
In 2017, schools and police forces issued warnings about Snapchat’s new Snap Maps feature, which shows users’ exact GPS location.
It is vital that there is a better understanding of the volume of children’s data that is collected and shared.
There must be boundaries with children and awareness of what content is oversharing.
Do you think you’ve fallen into the ‘sharent’ trap?
30% of parents share images of their children online
Ruth Kudzi is a business mentor, mindset coach, and bestselling author…
I have recently made the decision to stop sharing photos online of my children.
My Facebook profile was cloned earlier this month and they took photos of my kids to set up a Bitcoin profile.
It made me consider anything more sinister.
I don’t want to be responsible for my kids having a social media profile that they didn’t agree to or to put them in any danger.
As much as I would love to say that we live in a world where bad things don’t happen, it isn’t true. For me now, protecting my kids and their identity is important.
Mumfluencer Lauren Wilden @growingoutandup argues…
I think as long as I’m respectful and don’t overshare too much online about my family, there is nothing wrong with mum blogs or Instagram accounts!
I started documenting my pregnancy on Instagram to share moments with my family and friends, and connect with other expecting mums in the area.
I wanted to have a place to look back on when my daughter Millie is older.
One of the things I love most about Instagram is sharing advice and tips on parenting. I’ve made lots of local mum friends, too.
As my daughter grows up, I’ll be more careful about what I share online.
I’ll make sure she is aware of the page and not share anything that could cause her potential harm. 13-year-old student journalist Tatjana Mager-burr believes…
Parents should have to ask for our consent before they go and share pictures of us on social media oline!
We have a right to our own privacy.
The worst part is when that picture you thought your parents were taking just for memories, is shared to all their friends.
These friends also have children that might see it and spread it around.
Then bullying can happen. For all those adults out there, my message is to listen to your child.
These embarrassing photos are torturous for us and have the potential to haunt us forever.
Think before you share!
Blogger Lyndsey Thomas has over 20,000 readers on her blog www.girlabout.co.uk…
I think mums sharing their experiences online is a really positive thing! I am a very responsible parent and I’m very careful about the photos I use online.
But equally, I love writing blogs that involve my kids and my readers love reading them. I always make sure images of my kids are appropriate, and I never geotag my home address. I fade out school uniform logos and always ask the permission of other mums. I would advise other parents to share, share, share if they want to. Just make sure that all images are appropriate and ask permission from other parents. Posting images of your child online does not make you a bad parent.