Parents sharing pics of their kids on social media ‘unintentionally handing material to paedophiles’
MPs were told how over-sharing parents who document their kids' lives on Facebook could be putting their children in harm's way
PARENTS who publish photos of their children on social media could 'unintentionally be handing material to paedophiles', MPs heard yesterday.
The harmless practice known as "sharenting" (a mix of sharing and parenting) refers to all the proud posts mum and dads share of their children on the likes of Facebook and Instagram.
These can span everything from a tot's first words to smiley pics of the whole family – or even a baby in the bathtub.
But parents were urged to set up the right privacy controls to stop their photos winding up in the hands of sexual predators.
Children's charity Barnardo's warned that paedophiles could find this type of content and circulate it online.
The organisation was among a panel of experts that highlighted the risks children are exposed to on social media to MPs on the Science and Technology Committee.
Tory MP Damien Moore asked: "What about sharenting – where parents themselves are responsible?" He added: "Criminals are downloading these pictures and images and using them for sexual content."
Tips on social media sharing for parents
Sharenting can put your kids at risk online – follow this guide to stay safe...
- Master the privacy settings – Check who can see your posts and make sure they aren’t public. Find out how in our guide to Facebook privacy. On Instagram, consider setting your profile to private.
- Think twice before posting – Could this post prove embarrassing for my child when they're older? Could this comment be taken out of context? If in doubt, don’t share.
- Talk to your child – When your child is old enough to grasp social media, ask if they are okay with you sharing a post or photo.
- Don’t share – One of the best ways to keep your child safe online is not to share photos and posts about them.
- Check online sfatey guides – The , and all have social media protection resources for parents that you can consult.
A 2017 by the University of Florida Levin College of Law found that 92 per cent of two-year-olds in the US have an online presence. But it's not just their gap-toothed smiles and adorable antics that parents are allowing viewers in on.
“When children appear in Facebook photos, 45.2 per cent of the posts also mention the child’s first name, and 6.2 per cent reference the child’s date of birth, allowing all viewers to establish the exact age of the child,” the study noted.
“On Instagram, 63 per cent of parents reference their child’s first name in at least one photo in their stream, 27 per cent of parents reference their child’s date of birth, and 19 per cent share both pieces of information.”
It's not hard to envision how this type of personal info could be used by someone with less than honourable intentions to identify a child's whereabouts.
The MPs were also told that permitting children to use tablets or phones before bedtime was like giving them a soft drink and then demanding they go to sleep.
"At the moment a child spends on average almost five-and-half hours per day on social media, which is almost as long as they spend at school," said Barnardo’s chief executive Javed Khan.
"It’s vital the Government leads on tackling this issue because research shows there is a connection between time spent on social media and mental health problems.
"We have a ‘five a day’ fruit and vegetable campaign to benefit people’s health and it’s now time for guidance to be produced about how much screen time is healthy – and how much is too much.
"The guidance must look at development and age stages, so parents and carers have a clear understanding of when to tell their children their time online is up."
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