Social media can be a great way to keep family and friends up to date on milestones and achievements in your child’s life. However, it is important to be mindful of what personal information and content you are sharing, and who may have access to it.
Content uploaded to social media may inadvertently contain personal information and could reveal a lot about yourself and your child. Images, videos and post information can then potentially be used by online child sex offenders to build a profile to groom parents or children.
Identifying information often shared online can include:
- Age (or school grade)
- Full name
- School or sports teams (particularly at back-to school time)
- Address (including street number)
- Interests/hobbies
- A trusted adult’s full name
Everyday images of children may also end up in the collections of online child sex offenders. These can be images of children engaging in everyday activities including bath-time, sports and swimming carnivals, or just children being out and about. Offenders have also used imagery and other innocently shared material to create sexually explicit deepfake material, such as videos, images, drawings or stories.
To protect the children and young people in your life, there are things that you can do to ensure added privacy and control over your child’s photos, and who sees them online
Overarching tips and actions for parents to consider before sharing photos and posts on social media:
- Don’t reveal your children’s personal details, such as their names, ages and school years.
- Don’t reveal details about your children’s school or activities through elements such as uniforms, logos or street names.
- Avoid “checking-in” on social media as that can reveal your location.
- Only share photos with people you know and trust. Make sure you educate others about how, and if, you would be comfortable for them to onshare your material.
- If another person is taking photos of your child, talk to them about how the photos will be used and where they will be shared.
Use the built in photo editors on your phone rather than editing directly in an online platform. When you edit within a social media app, the original image can be stored, which means the identifiable details you want to hide have been uploaded and could be compromised in future.
The videos below show some quick and simple tips to edit photos before sharing on social media
Parental Advice for Posting Images factsheet
