12 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Post Pictures of Your Child on Social Media

A cute moment with your baby; you take a picture. Your child does something embarrassing that you think is funny; you record a video. We live in the digital age where many of us can’t resist recording and posting about everything that goes on in our day-to-day lives on social media, including images of our kids and the moments we have with them.

While you may be doing it without much thought or ill motive, the unfortunate thing is that posting pictures and videos of your child on social media, also called sharenting, can be dangerous.

Sharing content about moments with your child you thought were adorable or funny online may expose them to things and people who could harm them now or in the future.

In this article, we discuss some of the reasons why should avoid posting pictures of your child on social media and other areas of the internet.

But first, why do some parents like oversharing by posting pictures of their kids and family life on social media? Let’s see the reasons for sharenting.

Why Parents Post Pictures of Their Child Online

To share moments and updates on their kids with relatives, friends, and strangers on the internet
To store memories and create a digital record of their child’s development over the years
To share their parenthood journey
To connect with other parents going through the same things with their kids
To create a particular image of the family
They crave attention
They are unaware of the dangers of sharenting
To pass the time
To make money from the content
Being a parent is their entire identity now

12 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Post Pictures of Your Child on Social Media

Kids can’t consent

It is okay to post photos of yourself. You know what you are doing and have consented to putting your image out there. Your child is a different case.

One of the reasons why you shouldn’t post pictures and videos of your child on social media is that they can’t really consent to it, especially when they are very young.

Even if they say yes, they are minors. They are not old enough to know exactly what they are getting into by allowing content on themselves to be published online.

Instead of sharenting, it is up to you to protect the privacy of your child until they are old enough to give real consent.

Protection from predators

You go out and tag the places you visit in the pictures you post. You want to show off how your house looks, so you post a house tour video explaining where everything, including your children’s bedrooms, is.

You record how you took your child to their first day of school or went to pick them up from school while showing their uniform or school name. You post about their daily activities, as well as their likes and dislikes. Perhaps you even post pictures of the child in clothes or engaging in actions that could be sexualized.

Would you be surprised if someone knew everything about your kids and did something bad to them using the information you provided to the public on social media? For example, getting stalked, kidnapped, raped, or even killed.

No matter your privacy settings, you can never be sure who is viewing the content you share on the internet and what they do with the details they gather from the pictures and videos.

Protection from predatory individuals is one of the main reasons why you shouldn’t post pictures of your child on social media. It will be a form of self-preservation for you and your kid.

It is an invasion of their privacy

You are invading your child’s privacy by publishing content about them.

For instance, you may post naked or partially naked pictures of them, thinking they are cute. The child may do things innocently while thinking the moment is just between you. Also, the photos and videos may go viral, and the child could become a celebrity overnight.

The invasion of privacy and betrayal of trust are some of the reasons why you should avoid posting pictures and videos of your child on social media.

Having parents ready with cameras to record every action of their kid is no different than having inescapable paparazzi around them 24/7.

Respect your child’s privacy by avoiding sharenting.

Protection from bullies

You can never predict how people will react to the content you share. Some people will like it and show that by pressing the like button, others will be indifferent and do nothing, while others will not like the posts or the people in them and will either click on the dislike button or leave negative comments on the post.

In addition, when you share videos and pictures of your kids, other parents and kids in your neighborhood may also get to see them, and this could lead to the bullying of your child at school or elsewhere.

They may make fun of your kid using information they learned from the content you recorded and shared.

The reason why you shouldn’t post pictures of your child on social media is that it is a way to protect your child from bullies, both online and in real life. They won’t know what is going on in your lives; hence, they can’t comment or make fun of your kids.

Increased chances of identity theft

Are you familiar with the term digital kidnapping? This is when someone steals the pictures of a minor and posts them while pretending it is their own photo or that of their child. Many people do this to create fake lives.

The reason why you shouldn’t post pictures of your child online is that it makes it easier for digital kidnappers to get photos of your kid and make up new lives with them. They can use these fake social media profiles to exploit their followers.

Additionally, sharing sensitive details of your child, such as posts with their photos, full names, date of birth, or location on social media, may lead to cases of identity theft in real life. People can use this data to create fake IDs, extort money from others, or commit other crimes.

Inauthenticity

Growing up in front of the camera is not easy. Eventually, your kid will realize that you share the pictures and videos you record with your followers and that they may recognize them in real life or comment on elements about them.

The problem with sharenting is that your kids may become self-conscious and try to always be perfect to avoid having any embarrassing moments; you could frequently make them lie or tell them to act in a certain way on camera, and they may also realize the power of likes and views on social media and start needing them for validation.

All these can change how they behave and feel about themselves.

The loss of authenticity is one of the reasons why you shouldn’t post pictures and videos of your child on social media. Children need to feel free to be who they are and live their childhood without fear of their actions being documented, shared, and commented on by others.

Social isolation

If your child gets famous or you constantly want to record content about them to share on social media, you may have to homeschool them or have them close by at all times, thus isolating them from other kids their age.

The social isolation caused by sharenting may affect your child’s development, leading to a lack of social skills, ignorance, increased anxiety in social settings, depression, limited creativity, and lack of street smarts.

Your child’s pictures may be repurposed

Once you post a picture on social media, it ceases to belong to only you and is available for use by the platform you uploaded it on and anyone else who likes it. They can do whatever they want with it.

The reason why you should avoid posting pictures and videos of your child on social media is that others could repurpose their image. They could make memes with it, use it on advertisements without paying for the image or to advertise products you are against, use it to conduct illegal activities such as extortion, or create child pornographic content.

It can be difficult to get people to take down your child’s pictures, trace the origins/the person who repurposed them first, or make others pay for the image’s use.

Messed-up family relationships

Viewers have their likes and dislikes. Therefore, the content you post about your kids may not be received the same way.

We are also quite different from each other. So, if you have more than one kid, their personalities will probably differ, and their reception by the audience will vary as well, which you can tell through the amount of engagement on posts.

When they discover that the audience likes a particular child more, some parents may decide to post more content about their more popular kid than the rest. They may also do some activities with the popular child only.

Favoritism while sharenting could lead to messed up family relationships, especially sibling rivalry, with the less famous children feeling jealous, neglected, inferior, and anxious.

They may also lack a sense of belonging, have low self-esteem, and exhibit behavioral problems. Such children may even change themselves while competing with the popular sibling.

Child exploitation

Every time you share content about your family life or your kid’s life, it goes viral, and now your child is a celebrity with thousands or millions of followers and viewers.

Brands may reach out for collaboration opportunities. You may also want to join a program like the YouTube partnership program to monetize the content.

If you give in and monetize content about your child, you may be messing with their childhood.

Sharing pictures and videos of your child on social media to make money is a form of exploitation because the kid may become the source of income for the household. This may make family time not feel like a time for love and fun but like a job, something kids their age aren’t expected to have.

Unsolicited parenting advice and opinions

Posting your child’s image and videos online is an invitation for people to tell you their opinion of you and them. And since we are all different, we see things differently.

When you post images of your child on social media, it is not only your kid that may receive negative comments, you and your parenting skills may also be criticized.

The reason why you should avoid posting pictures of your child online is because it invites unsolicited advice and opinions from people on what you should do or not do as a parent.

Unfortunately, other people’s opinions on your parenting methods could confuse you, make you feel as if you are lacking as a parent, and may negatively influence how you raise your child.

Future impacts

Sharenting doesn’t only affect the child when they are still minors, the effects may persist into adulthood.

For instance, people who grew up with their lives constantly being documented, shared, and commented on by others on social media may feel self-conscious, have the main character syndrome, become perfectionists, lack social skills, experience social anxiety, lack privacy, have an altered sense of self, develop mental health issues, and always have to be hyper-vigilant.

The negative impacts on your child in the future are good reasons to avoid posting pictures of your child on social media until they are old enough to consent to it.

Final Thoughts

Kids do adorable and funny things that you may experience the urge to share with relatives, friends, and even strangers on the internet. But it is time you started to avoid sharing pictures and videos of your child online, for their own good and yours as well.

The preservation of privacy, lack of consent, exposure to predatory individuals, protection from bullies, and lack of authenticity are some of the reasons why you shouldn’t post pictures and videos of your child on social media.

So, if posting pictures of your child is bad, should you bother taking photos and videos of them? The answer is yes.

Do take pictures and videos of your child occasionally, but don’t post them. They are ways to capture and preserve the beautiful moments and memories of your child at various stages of their life.

When they are older, your child will love seeing what their childhood was like and even appreciate that you kept these moments between you instead of sharing them with everyone. If they want to share the pictures and videos now that they are older, they can go ahead.

Whenever you feel tempted to publish content about your kid online, think about the above reasons to remember why you shouldn’t post pictures of your child on social media. From now on, avoid sharenting and concentrate more on just being a parent.

If you choose to post pictures and videos of your child on social media, be careful with the type of content you share, identify your intention for doing it, and be aware of the possible consequences of sharenting.

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Read more articles from Aisles of Life here.

Why Parents Post Pictures of Their Child Online

12 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Post Pictures of Your Child on Social Media

Final Thoughts

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