Many parents will think nothing of posting photos and videos of their children online to show the world how wonderful they are. Yet, it is rather unnerving to learn that the average parent can place as many as 1,500 images of their child before their fifth birthday.
Mostly posted via social media sites and appearing to represent a cosy community experience, the practise has serious consequences in terms of family security, privacy and their child's well-being, warns Barclays. The bank predicts such activity will account for two-thirds of identity fraud affecting young people by the end of the decade – equal to an estimated 7.4 million separate incidents.
Peer groups can prove powerful influences on such online platforms. The
Wall Street Journal (WSJ) mentions 'millionaire kids', where young people are highlighted on YouTube. One has 90 million subscribers through doing nothing more than short reels showing parties on a big yacht or taking a ride in a Ferrari. This particular child is nine going on 10, with expansion plans into branded toys and licensing deals reputed to be worth tens of millions of dollars. Hard to believe? WSJ quotes YouTube personalities strategist Eyal
Baurnel: 'These kids who come from nowhere have more influence than Mickey Mouse'. Remember those pre-social media days?
With an expected surge in family snaps on internet and mobile channels, CyberSafe Scotland has teamed up with Aberdeen City Council, funded by the Scottish Government, to launch the Digital Well-being and Online Harm Prevention Project 2022-2023, with a focus on supporting the community to maximise the safety of children and young people 'in their online spaces'. Launched on 'Safer Internet Day', it emphasises the need for respect in online relationships through helping schools and families.
Privacy and cyber security experts at VPN Overview stress the greatest dangers when it comes to the growing phenomenon of sharing photos and videos of children, under the false promise that the practice, mostly on social media accounts, is privacy-protected. A false sense of cyber security. For some, it is seen as a modern-day scrapbook packed full of memories for friends and family to enjoy. For first-time parents, 'sharenting' can also be a great way to build a community, share parenting advice and connect with other families.
However, the habitual use of these platforms, which often have minimal protection, is worrying. First, there's no such thing as 'private'. Most parents who post pictures of their children online will be doing so on a reputed privacy-protected social media account. Unfortunately, these privacy settings offer a false sense of security. Even photos of your children posted on closed accounts can be the subject of screenshots and redistributed to larger audiences.
As soon as you post something online, you've effectively lost control over it. Even home cameras or baby monitors can all generate digital data that could end up in the wrong hands. Parents may unknowingly be putting their children at risk by including confidential information leading to identity theft: read 'digital kidnapping'. Consider the following statistics: 45.2% of posts that feature children on Facebook also mention the child's name, while
19% of similar posts on Instagram reference both name and date of birth. If this data were to be combined with social security information obtained illegally on the dark web, digital kidnapping would become a serious risk.
Where there are children online, there are sexual predators. Investigators looking into child abuse online have found that tens of millions of photos of children shared on social media resurface on unsavoury platforms. Even if the material itself is not explicit, the commentary on them often is on such platforms. Moreover, the photos could be digitally manipulated to take on a sexual nature. As a parent, you must be mindful of what you post. Posting holiday snaps from the beach with your child in swimwear can seem innocent, but the image can easily be abused.
Also, and despite a parent's good intentions, kids may grow up to be embarrassed by certain online content posted without their consent. The negative consequences of a digital footprint may only follow years after the fact, but in some cases, public information on social media is used as a parenting technique. In 2016, an 18-year-old girl in Austria sued her parents for sharing over 500 photos of her with their Facebook friends. She claimed that these photos, depicting her in extremely personal ways, have had very negative real-life consequences.
Digital photos of your children, as it turns out, say more about them than you might think. What's known as metadata is attached to each photo that we post on social media sites and tells third parties all sorts of things about what is in the photo, where it was taken and what type of person posted it.
Data brokers work hard to build social profiles of internet users, allowing companies to build a digital dossier that tells them exactly what they are most likely to click on. The manipulative power of these types of systems is far-reaching and dangerous, especially regarding children's data. Letting information about your child become subject to surveillance is risky.
Many big tech companies have terms and conditions that give them the rights to user-generated content. By posting photos on social media, you are effectively handing over ownership of your photos to corporate companies, which makes removing them very difficult. These photos of your children can live on forever on the internet, giving a sense of permanence to a child's identity.
Could future employers or university admissions offices deny your child future opportunities because they have found an online video of your child having a tantrum? It is difficult to look into the future and know for certain what could happen to the photographs and videos of your children, but you must ask yourself if it's worth the risk.
There is little or no regulation for sharing photos online. You might be able to access a website's privacy policy, but chances are these will be long and incomprehensible. Getting a photograph removed may prove to be quite difficult unless you suspect sexual exploitation.
In the UK, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (CEOP) was created to protect children from sexual abuse online. Parents can contact CEOP to report any online grooming or sexual abuse.
The UK Government has issued a warning to social media firms that they must stop young people using their platforms or risk heavy fines. Unfortunately, it's a naive political move given there are already millions on such sites. Where was such a threat-of-action say five years, even a decade ago? Ofcom reports, worryingly, that one-in-three children lie about their age to access adult content on social media it describes as inappropriate and harmful. The father of 14-year-old Molly Russell has called for urgent changes to make children safer online. A coroner concluded that Molly died from an act of self-harm while suffering depression and negative effects of online content. A tragic incident.
An NHS Digital report specifically covering Gen Z, described as the first internet generation, reveals that a quarter of 17-to-19-year-olds have a probable mental disorder; when it comes to 17-to-24-year-olds, the figure is twice as high involving women compared with men. Separate NHS figures show that the number of under-18s in contact with health services rose by almost 30% in the last year.
Although social media is not mentioned outright, it's a digital report in a digital era, so online activities cannot be divorced from the equation. One chink of light is that Twitter's new owner Elon Musk says that removing child exploitation is priority '#1'. However, as one pundit pointed out: 'Watch what they do, not what they say'. Financial website, Bloomberg, reported that Musk's drastic cuts have decimated the very team tackling child sexual abuse. Make of those contradictory statements what you will.
Here are five ways that can go some way towards rectifying matters when it comes to online and mobile posting:
1. Switch to private emails instead of sharing content on social media.
2. A
oid nudity and partial nudity;
3. Omit confidential information.
4. Never share photos of other people's children.
5. Where possible, how about getting your child's consent?
Former Reuters, Sunday Times, The Scotsman and Glasgow Herald business and finance correspondent, Bill Magee is a columnist writing tech-based articles for Daily Business, Institute of Directors, Edinburgh Chamber and occasionally The Times' 'Thunderer'
