It has always bugged me that people post so many pictures of their kids on Facebook without their kids’ consent. I raised that issue years ago with several parents who regularly posted pictures of their kids on Facebook.
“Did the kid give permission for that picture to be posted?” I asked them individually over Messenger. “If not, at what age does he or she get rights of consent?”
None of them really answered, I got one vague response about why I was asking, and another response kindly suggesting I get over it: This is the way of things now.
I’ve even gone so far as to suggest removal of some of these photos, for example one of a naked newborn because the creeps out there might get ahold of that image and use it in all the wrong ways. Not to mention the “Oh my God” factor of that person finding out all her nakedness was shown online to a large group of parental friends when just a wee babe.
McAfee nailed this in a recent press release about a survey they conducted on just this topic. In it, the majority of parents didn’t even consider consent, and fathers, mostly, don’t care if the kids get embarrassed by what they post.
On the other hand, the majority did worry about things like kidnapping, pedophilia, and other bad things happening as a result of those pictures being posted online. Yet these same parents also went ahead and posted pictures of their kids in school uniforms or showing other identifying and location related data.
According to the McAfee report, photos are often automatically tagged with location information when uploaded to social media accounts, making it easier to find them. The report also suggests tightening privacy settings if you are inclined to share photos (which is a good rule to follow in general for all postings) and iterating ground rules with family and friends likely to post images of your children.
For more information, see the McAfee release here: https://www.mcafee.com/enterprise/en-us/about/newsroom/press-releases/press-release.html?news_id=20180821005713
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