@downdraft I don’t post photos of my child on social media unless her face is not in the picture. She can’t consent to her photo being shared. People love seeing little snippets of her and updates on how she’s doing without seeing her face. It’s been a source of contention with my in-laws who wanna share her photo with God knows who.
I wish we could go back to the 90s-00s where you had to have old school photo albums and everything wasn’t technology based. Photos sent via text, email and posted on social media aren’t private. Geotags are on photos so people can see where the photos were taken, and phones/emails/social media are not private. As adults we can consent to our photos being shared and distributed, but babies can’t.
To each their own. If someone else wants to post their baby’s photo they can, but not everyone is comfortable with it.
@downdraft Finally someone said it…. I have been thinking the same thing lately as I’ve been seeing it a lot in this sub. Every time I see someone post a picture of their babies face in here I report it. First of all it goes against the rules (no Facebook/Instagram style content). They need a rule flat out against posting pictures containing a child’s face. Not because I don’t want to see adorable babies, but for the exact reason you said. Anyone can come and view this subbreddit, or others for that matter. And yes, there are creeps out there who are aroused by something so simple as a baby in a diaper. They might save that photo for their own personal use and do god knows what with it. Anyone who chooses to ignore that and post their babies face for thousands of strangers to see is being naive in thinking it’s okay…it’s not okay, you don’t know who is on the other side of the screen.
@downdraft I’m always very surprised people are willing to post unredacted pictures of their babies and kids on Reddit. This is a public forum and people should be careful.
@downdraft Thank you for posting this. It truly makes me anxious as well. If people want to share photos with family without posting on social media, I use the Family Album app.
@downdraft Honest question: what is the actual danger of posting my babies’ faces on these subreddits? Like it doesn’t tell anyone where I live? No one can hurt them from looking at a photo of them? I don’t get why this is a big deal. If someone posts a photo on this sub of this baby they understand it’s not private and are okay with that.
@seventy If someone really wants to and depends on what you post online (like looking at your comment history, or even if you use the same username elsewhere or do not clear metadata on your photos), they could probably locate you eventually. Risk may be low, but there are tons of crazies out there. If there is a will, there is a way.
@dvdmcfadden Yea my boyfriend showed me how easy it can be to pull a geotag from a photo. I was astonished. It came up in a convo about us not wanting pics of our baby posted online and I couldn’t believe that was actually possible. I’m very glad he’s much more tech savvy than I am because I learned a lot about the info that can be pulled from one single photo. He also showed me that stickers or things added to a photo to hide something can be easily removed if they are applied through an app vs the editing mode in the photo gallery on the phone itself.
@downdraft Every time this comes up I fail to see any real harm. A person could take my son's picture in the street. CCTV takes his picture hundreds of times every time we go out.
I'm not sure what the actual harm to him will be if people have an image of him. Not "I feel weird about it", actual harm.
Seems over the top and part of fear.based parenting which seems to be taking over more and more
@judsonuguy89 I don’t think it’s fear based at all - I think it’s just yet another issue of having to educate oneself on the risk involved in something (in this case, posting your child’s photos on social media) to decide if it’s worth it for you to participate in. As I’ve said in other comments, if you know the possible risks involved and choose to do something, that’s fine. The problem comes when people don’t understand that there are certain risks or are naive to them and therefore aren’t making an informed decision.
@salomie There are several reasons, like preventing identity theft, child predators, and giving your child autonomy over their image. Here’s an article that describes it a bit more.
@russelae01 I do agree with the point about giving your child autonomy over their image, that's actually why I don't post pics of my kid, it feels wrong without their consent.
That's interesting about tracking the location using the photo, I hadn't thought of that. Still not sure how anyone could steal their identity from a picture though.
“Sharing your children´s information or images online may result in identity theft. Posting ultrasound pictures, with sensitive information, exposes the child to risks even before they are born. Sometimes, a post may include a child´s name, date of birth or location. Then, in just a few clicks, a perpetrator may discover the parents’ personal information. Combine all that with data breaches and social security numbers readily available on the Dark web, and you have a quick and easy recipe for identity theft – with hackers possibly obtaining credit in the child´s name. According to banking leader Barclays, risks stemming from posting your children’s pictures online will account for two-thirds of identity fraud and financial scams facing young people by 2030.”
