In today’s technological age, it is easy to want to put out all the sweet moments, all the funny stories and anything that your kids achieve. In fact, everybody uses social networks as a rather innocent opportunity to share the news, such as the appearance of the new family members. However, this practice, known as sharenting, comes with a hidden cost: concerning your child’s privacy and safety on the internet.
According to CG’s blog post ,However, if you are driven to capture moments of your child’s life, it is equally important to think about what it means in the long run. It is very dangerous to share photos and information about your kids online because this puts them in the line of danger of suffering from a host of dangers which may be short term or long term. So, let’s look more closely at the gen problems connected with sharenting and discuss how to act in the digital world and protect the child if you are a parent.
The Problems with Sharenting
Sharing excessive information about your kids online can have several negative consequences:
- Privacy Concerns: The problem with giving information to the internet is that it is almost impossible to contain said information. Pictures with descriptions can be quickly and freely copied and pasted and, most likely, get passed around far beyond the original owner’s plan. This can be very dangerous mainly as a child grows up, they may not be very happy seeing their youthful childhood moments on the internet.
- Digital Footprint: All material posted on the internet can impact your child’s reputation because it follows him/her for several years. Silly pictures or items posted online or celebrities stupid things done in their childhood can haunt them in future by affecting their studies, employment or even their ability to get a date.
- Safety Risks: Forcing people to give their id, such as a child’s name, school, or location can endanger the life or turn the child into a target for paedophiles or identity thieves.
- Loss of Control: When you post a message anywhere, it becomes amuses to the public thus people cannot be trusted with whatever one posts online.If you are regularly using social networks, the privacy settings can be changed and personnel data leaks are possible.
Challenges of Safe Sharenting
Navigating the world of safe sharenting comes with its own set of challenges:
- The Pressure to Share: All social networking bases their progress on the keywords: interaction and sharing. For example, today it is more and more necessary to update pictures or videos of children to follow up the current trend or new trends provided by parents.
- Family Dynamics: It poses conflict of interest situations within the family, such that the desire to share with loved ones seems to be prudent, yet protection of the child’s privacy is also important. Such overenthusiastic relatives would be willing to end up sharing photographs without repercussions taking into consideration the future outcomes.
- The Evolving Digital Landscape: Forgetting about technology, it is quite hard for a normal person to cope with the rapid changes in privacy settings and online threats.
Strategies for Safe Sharenting
Despite the challenges, there are ways to share responsibly and protect your child’s online presence:
- Get Consent: In our digital age it is important to still respect your child’s privacy and personal space. If the child is intelligent enough to reason, do not use their photos or information on any social network without seeking their permission. This makes them aware about the privacy related to online working and also it provides them the feeling of responsibility for their activities on the net.
- Think Before You Post: Reflect on what can happen once you share anything on the Internet. How do you feel if somebody else tells similar things about your child?
- Less is More: Avoid oversharing. Instead of trying to take a picture of everything your child does, try to take pictures of the memories you want to cherish.
- Privacy Settings: It is recommended to check your privacy settings every now and then or whenever you create a new social profile. Do not share content on open platforms and avoid sharing things with a large audience: use private or closed options.
- Ditch the Geotag: It is advisable not to switch off the location services while capturing images and most importantly, don’t provide details that show where your child is.
- Be Selective About Information: It is good not to give details such as your child’s full name, date of birth, or even the school your child goes to.
- Focus on the Positive: Rather than posting images which may make your child or his friends laugh out or blush, post pictures which depict a positive side of your child or his success stories.
- Alternatives to Social Media: If one wants to share pictures with friends and other relatives, they should avoid using sites like Facebook or twitter instead use their own private gallery that is password protected.
Striking a Balance
Thus, sharenting doesn’t have to be either full disclosure or non-disclosure. This, therefore, affords one an opportunity to balance social connectivity with loved ones and at the same time protecting your children from the evil of the world. Just keep reminding that what you share today forms the particular digital world which your child is to inherit. With the help of safe sharenting practices explained above, they can do it carefully and securely steering their digital persona on their own.
