Sharing photos of your children on social media

Sharing photos of your children on social media — often called “sharenting” — feels totally natural in our digitally connected world.

If anyone knows how tempting it is to share our kids’ hysterical, adorable, or unreal moments with our entire social networks, it’s us, the parents.

Sharing photos is a way to celebrate milestones, seek advice, or connect with distant family. But experts and parents increasingly warn that these innocent posts can create lasting risks, from privacy breaches to exploitation. By the time a child turns 13, parents may have shared around 1,300 photos or videos of them online.

Once posted, these images are hard to fully erase due to screenshots, shares, and platform algorithms. Below, I’ll outline specific types of photos (and details) to avoid, backed by common concerns from child safety advocates, cybersecurity pros, and real parent experiences.

Types of Photos and Details to Avoid Posting

Here’s a breakdown of problematic shares, why they’re risky, and safer alternatives. This isn’t about shaming — it’s about empowering you to protect your kids’ digital footprint.

With regard to location or other revealing shots try to avoid grabbing photos of your kids in front of your house (address visible), at school gates, or playgrounds with identifiable landmarks. Sharing photos taken in front of your home or school can establish potential routines, enabling stalking or harassment. Predators can piece together patterns from multiple posts. You can always crop out backgrounds and even use private family albums (e.g., iCloud shared folders) for close relatives only.

Birthdays and various other milestones can expose birth dates, ages, and locations, fueling identity theft — kids’ clean credit histories make them prime targets for fraudulent accounts. Try to avoid the public images of party photos with the cake showing age, or “1st birthday at [venue]” captions. Try to share the milestone verbally or via encrypted messages; avoid public dates/names.

Full-face close-ups can feed facial recognition tech and AI tools that generate deepfakes or explicit content (even from clothed images). Platforms own rights to redistribute your uploads like smiling portraits, sleeping babies, or family selfies showing clear faces for example. Try using emojis/stickers over faces, back/silhouette views, or no-face shots (e.g., feet in sand).

School or uniform shared photos can identify education details, making bullying or targeted approaches easier. Uniforms can tag routines like bus stops. Avoid grabbing shots of your kids in school clothes, backpack, or with classmates surrounded by identifiable settings. You should wait for consent (around age 6-8) and post their photos only if they agree; otherwise, skip.

Embarrassing or vulnerable moments can violate future consent — kids may cringe at tantrums, potty training, or messes immortalized online. These can lead to “digital kidnapping” where images are stolen and repurposed as someone else’s child. These would be things like bath time, meltdowns, or “adorable fails” like food-smeared faces for instance. Keep private journals or printed albums; discuss boundaries with your kids as they grow.

Be cautious of group photos with unvetted people. These can expose your kid alongside others without permission; others might re-post publicly. Situations like this often involve family events where faces aren’t blurred, or playdates with non-close friends’ kids. You might do well to ask permission from all of the parents; blur non-family faces or share one-on-one.

These risks of sharing photos aren’t hypothetical: Australian officials once uncovered 45 million child images (mostly from social media) in predator caches with many innocent play shots. AI now amplifies threats, turning family dinners into source material for harmful edits.

Broader Risks of Sharenting

• • Predator Access: Even private accounts aren’t foolproof — followers can screenshot and share. Cybersecurity experts note metadata (like GPS tags) embeds location data automatically.
  • Identity Theft & Long-Term Harm: Oversharing builds profiles for fraud; one expert advises a “holiday card-or-less” rule — minimal, non-identifying updates.
  • Consent & Emotional Impact: Kids can’t opt out young, leading to anxiety over “cringy” teen discoveries. Many parents regret it and delete archives.
  • Platform Exploitation: Social media terms grant companies rights to your content forever, potentially for ads or training AI.

Tips for Safer Sharing

If you still want to share (totally valid!), prioritize privacy:

• • Go Private/Minimalist: Limit to close circles; use invite-only apps like Tinybeans for family-only access.
  • Tech Tweaks: Disable location services, facial recognition, and auto-uploads. Set Google Alerts for your kid’s name.
  • Family Buy-In: Announce boundaries at birth (e.g., “No shares, please—we’re keeping it offline”) and remind gently. Cover faces in group shots.
  • Involve Your Kids: Start consent talks early; let them curate as teens.
  • Offline Joy: Print photos for albums or host in-person shares — validation from likes isn’t worth the vulnerability.

Ultimately, it’s your call, but erring on the side of caution gives kids agency over their story. As one parent put it: “She didn’t choose social media — I did.” If you’re rethinking past posts, tools like Instagram’s “Download Your Data” can help you to audit and delete.

I’m pretty sure that in the future, your kids will thank you for the protected space to grow up offline.