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Originally published for ABC here
Many parents make their social media accounts private to safely share images of their children with family and friends.
But the level of privacy those accounts provide is sometimes misunderstood, explains Joanne Orlando, a digital wellbeing researcher at Western Sydney University.
“We think if our account is private, everything we put online is kind of locked down and no-one can access it.
“It is more secure than a public account, but it’s not 100 per cent locked down — it doesn’t quite work that way.”
So what are the risks of sharing images of your children on private social media accounts, and how can you mitigate it?
Julie Inman Grant is Australia’s eSafety Commissioner and says when you post a photo of your child online, it can end up travelling more widely than you would like, or realise.
“While it’s perfectly natural for parents to want to share photos of their kids with family and friends, it’s important to remember that we may be unwittingly creating a permanent ‘digital footprint’ for our child which might never be expunged,” she says.
“This is why it is important to consider your privacy and safety settings and share with friends and family you know and trust.”
Dr Orlando says while many of us assume the people on our friends’ lists are trustworthy, it’s important to ask yourself how well you really know them.
“Your account might be private, but often the people we connect with on Facebook or Instagram are people we knew 20 years ago, or we might have met on a plane one time.
“Our social media is a kind of a hodgepodge of people who we are not necessarily close to and people we know very well.”
She says people who can view your account can download or screenshot images you share, and re-share in a way that you might not like.
Even those with good intentions may do this, and once that happens “you’ve lost control” over that content, says Dr Orlando.
It is established that public social media accounts can be subject to web crawlers, Dr Orlando says.
A web crawler is a program or bot that searches websites and categorises the content on them.
Earlier this year it was reported that the privacy of Australian children was being violated on a large scale by the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, with personal images, names, locations and ages being used to train some of the world’s leading AI models.
And recently Facebook admitted that it scrapes the public photos, posts and other data of Australian adult users and provides no opt-out option.
“They did say just public accounts … but it’s a very fine line into how secure our private accounts are,” Dr Orlando says.
“You might think, ‘Oh it’s just Meta dealing with my content,’ but of course there are tonnes and tonnes of third-party businesses and apps associated with this process.”
She says technology is rapidly changing, and we can’t be sure web crawlers won’t be able to access private social media accounts.
“Web crawlers can kind of get disguised … say your preschool has photos they have saved on one part of their website that can only be accessed with a log-in — if that website is not really secure or the way they have saved those photos isn’t really secure, then those web crawlers can sneak in.”
There are many different scenarios in which your children’s photos can be misused, ranging from unpleasant to dangerous, says Dr Orlando.
“There is the creep factor,” she says as an example. “Someone looking at photos of your kids in a way that you would not feel comfortable with.”
There are also cases where children’s photos are used fraudulently to commit crime.
“People involved in romance scams might use your kid’s photos to say ‘this is my family,'” Dr Orlando says.
If a photo is picked up by AI, it can be used for anything, she says.
“They could create advertising campaigns that you have no say on and get no money from — and it might be something you would not want your child associated with.”
In the worst cases, Ms Inman Grant says photos can end up on paedophile websites and forums.
“While it’s a horrifying thought that an innocent photo of your child at a birthday party could be manipulated for evil, it’s a tragic reality that we’re facing as a global community.”
She says we also risk breaking trust with our children, and breaching consent practice.
“Sharing images of your children online without their knowledge or consent may lead to problems for them down the track, ranging from embarrassment to developing a poor understanding of consent and respect themselves.”
Other revealing details included in a photo or associated caption, such as location and personal information a predator could use to gain access to your child, is also a concern, Dr Orlando says.
A popular option with people cautious about posting content online is instead sharing via a group chat.
Dr Orlando says you still need to be careful about who is in that chat, and make sure everyone agrees on how the content shared is treated.
“It might be you, your mum, your two sisters, and that’s it. You don’t have to have all the nieces and nephews and their partners.
“Then have this agreement that we are just going to share this between us. And bring it up every now and then.”
If in doubt about an image, don’t post or share it, she says.
“Just show them when you see them.”
Some tips for sharing online from Ms Inman Grant include:
“More than ever, we really have to be careful about what we put online,” says Dr Orlando.
