Why you shouldn’t share pics of your kids online – The Wall Street Journal

The subject of sharing pictures of kids online is a minefield, especially when you have an opinion but the kids in question aren’t yours.

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14 Mar 2019, 2:00 am

DUBLIN — The subject of sharing pictures of kids online is a minefield, especially when you have an opinion but the kids in question aren't yours. But I have some thoughts based on my own experience of what my parents post about me, an adult. These days, I seldom post on social platforms, and even when I was posting regularly, I hardly ever shared personal information related to my mood, work, friends, intimate relationships, or plans. However, my mother would post that type of information about me. Never anything bad, mostly things she was proud about or excited about, but still, information that I would never have shared about myself. Eventually, I asked her to stop posting about me because I didn't like having people I don't know asking me about personal matters. I imagine something similar may happen for the small kids of today, whose parents post extremely personal information about their health, habits, personalities, and behaviour all the time. One day, they may come to resent their parents' social posts and the lack of privacy they entail. I also worry about the uses that companies like Facebook can find for our personal data, including the potentially ominous surveillance power of facial recognition. Exposing information about your children to data-hungry platforms like Facebook could, I imagine, leave you feeling icky one day. Privacy may seem like an old-fashioned idea these days, but I think it still has value. And it's something of value that parents have the power to give their children. – Felicity Duncan