What mum can resist posting an adorable picture of their baby’s first steps or their toddler’s adorable nursery rhyme recital online for all to see?
Posting pics and information about our kids online is the modern-day version of pulling out the wallet photos and gushing about their achievements with friends. While it’s perfectly natural to want to show off your kids, sometimes all the tweeting, picture posting, status updating and YouTube-ing can cross a line.
As parents, we're the custodians of our children's personal privacy until they are old enough to take over. If you do choose to blog or post photos of your children online, remember to follow these guidelines:
- Take advantage of privacy settings. By using the privacy settings offered on Facebook or other social media sites, you decrease the chances that online predators can view photos you post for family and friends.
- Protect your child from identity theft. It’s really scary to think about, but a thief could piece together what might appear to be random bits of information and use it to impersonate your child, taking out loans or even committing crimes.
- Choose hack-proof passwords. Avoid using personal information like birthdays or children’s names in your passwords.
- When in doubt about how much to share about your children in blogs or on social media sites, scaling back is safest. What nursery rhyme your toddler learnt that day is probably the most magical thing in the world to you but not everybody needs to know.
