{"id":8558,"date":"2021-09-20T02:39:52","date_gmt":"2021-09-19T18:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/think-before-you-post-the-impact-of-sharing-photos-of-your-child-online\/"},"modified":"2022-12-07T13:10:37","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T05:10:37","slug":"think-before-you-post-the-impact-of-sharing-photos-of-your-child-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/think-before-you-post-the-impact-of-sharing-photos-of-your-child-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Think before you post: the impact of sharing photos of your child online"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.simplecast.com\/e3946dda-a677-4c5c-9b19-32a718a0bcf9?dark=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The practice of parents sharing content of their kids online is so commonplace, it&#8217;s spawned its own term, \u2018sharenting\u2019. But before you post that cute or funny photo, it\u2019s worth considering the effect it can have on your child.<\/p>\n<p>Whenever we go online, we create a digital footprint \u2014 a trail of information left by the things we share and do on social media, websites and apps.<\/p>\n<p>The digital footprints of today\u2019s generation are being created even before they\u2019re born with parents sharing pregnancy photos, ultrasound images and advice on online parenting forums.<\/p>\n<p>Â鶹ֱ²¥&#8217;s Professor Tama Leaver and Dr Anna Bunn are researching the repercussions of a life documented online and the rights children have in this space.<\/p>\n<h2>Sharing more than you realise<\/h2>\n<p>At the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.digitalchild.org.au\/\">ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child<\/a>, Professor Tama Leaver is a chief investigator on the Connected Program looking at how children\u2019s data is captured, analysed and used, and how it can be more responsibly managed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany parents are too naive when it comes to sharing their children\u2019s information online,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey don\u2019t understand the amount of data that can be ascertained from images and videos and how it can be used.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you post a photo online, you\u2019re not just sharing the photo. You\u2019re also sharing the metadata behind it \u2014 the time, date and location. All of which can be collected by social media platforms and used to create a profile of your child.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Worryingly, Leaver believes the moments we are most likely to share are those when online privacy is furthest from our minds.<\/p>\n<p>In his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1080\/1369118X.2016.1259343?journalCode=rics20\">2018 study,<\/a> Leaver found this to be the case with parents sharing ultrasound images.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re euphoric when you see that first ultrasound. You want to share the good news. But we found people were taking a photo of the ultrasound screen with all of the\u00a0metadata embedded. You could see the mother&#8217;s name, the predicted date of birth and the hospital they\u2019re in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t realise at the time, but you\u2019re actually giving away really valuable information about your unborn child.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Content beyond control<\/h2>\n<p>Dr Anna <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/1468-2230.12590\">Bunn\u2019s recent research<\/a> examines the implications of unwanted distribution of content on children and young people.<\/p>\n<p>Once content is uploaded online it can be difficult to control how it is used and distributed, even once deleted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cImages can easily be manipulated or used as the basis of a meme,\u201d says Bunn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey can be used for teasing or even cyberbullying, which has the potential to seriously harm a child&#8217;s self-esteem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Bunn, image-based cyberbullying has consistently been the most impactful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn embarrassing or revealing image can mortify a child. And if it\u2019s widely distributed and they have no power over who sees it and on what terms, the child can lose their sense of control and autonomy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Even an image that parents consider to be fine or cute may not be seen that way by the child, leaving them quite distressed.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>The importance of forgetting<\/h2>\n<p>As harmful as unwanted images can be, there is limited recourse for Australian children to have them removed or erased.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no overarching right to privacy. While there are laws against any sexualised or revealing content, you can&#8217;t stop someone taking a photo of you or your child in the street and pretty much doing what they like with it,\u201d says Bunn.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/1329878X19848503\">Bunn&#8217;s research<\/a> points to overseas laws that could be introduced to provide better protection for Australian children.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe European General Data Protection Regulation gives children the right to object to the processing of their data or call for it to be removed. It\u2019s not absolute, but the right to erasure can give back some control.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although difficult to achieve in an era of Google and social media, Leaver also believes the right to erasure, or more commonly known as \u2018the right to be forgotten\u2019, is worth striving for.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing able to forget and move on from embarrassing moments matters. Children should have the same rights as their parents and grandparents and not have everything they\u2019ve done as a child and teenager searchable online, following them into adulthood.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Literacy the key to privacy<\/h2>\n<p>While better legal protections can help, both Bunn and Leaver agree that a safer, more private future relies on better digital literacy and practices from parents, educators and children.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cModel and ask for consent. Even if they\u2019re young and don\u2019t fully understand, get into the habit of asking them if they want their picture taken. Give the them tools to be able to say \u2018I\u2019m not comfortable with that\u2019 or \u2018I don\u2019t like that photo, please take it down\u2019,\u201d Bunn advises.<\/p>\n<p>Leaver also stresses the importance of being literate in our use of online tools.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTake the time to understand how privacy settings work and if there isn\u2019t a need to share something publicly, don\u2019t,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t know the full impact of our kids\u2019 data because we don\u2019t have generations who have lived long enough to see what a digital footprint from birth to eighty years old looks like. However, we do know that parents are the first arbiters of their children&#8217;s digital history \u2014 and we need to take responsibility for that.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><span lang=\"EN-US\">Hear more on\u00a0<span class=\"None\"><i>The Future Of<\/i> <\/span>podcast<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>This article was inspired by an episode of\u00a0<em>The Future Of<\/em>, the podcast where experts share their vision of the future and how their work is helping shape it for the better.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.curtin.edu.au\/podcasts\/?listing\"><em>The Future Of<\/em><\/a> on your favourite app or read other <a href=\"https:\/\/news.curtin.edu.au\/tag\/the-future-of\/\">articles<\/a> inspired by the podcast.<\/p>\n<h2>Researcher profiles<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-66745 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Dr-Anna-Bunn-110x90.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/staffportal.curtin.edu.au\/staff\/profile\/view\/Anna.Bunn\/\">Dr Anna Bunn<\/a> is a Senior Lecturer at the Curtin Law School. She has a master degree from Oxford University and her PhD focused on children\u2019s right to control their image online. Her research interests include law and technology; privacy, image and personality rights; torts; legal and policy issues around health; and child rights.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-66746 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/tama-leaver-36056c6e-copy-110x90.png\" alt=\"\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/staffportal.curtin.edu.au\/staff\/profile\/view\/tama-leaver-36056c6e\/\">Professor Tama Leaver<\/a> is a Professor of Internet Studies at Â鶹ֱ²¥, the\u00a0Vice-President of the <a href=\"https:\/\/aoir.org\/\">Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR)<\/a>\u00a0and a\u00a0Chief Investigator in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.digitalchild.org.au\/\">ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>His research interests include digital childhood and infancy online, visual social media, social media, digital death, mobile gaming and the changing landscape of media distribution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The practice of parents sharing content of their kids online is so common, it&#8217;s spawned its own term, \u2018sharenting\u2019. But before you post your next photo, consider the effect it can have on your child.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4411,"featured_media":8560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,3,82,40],"tags":[],"research-areas":[51,52,57],"class_list":["post-8558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-and-design","category-campus-and-global-community","category-society-and-culture","category-technology","research-areas-business-society-and-community","research-areas-digital-transformation","research-areas-healthy-communities"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Childrens-online-privacy-feature-image-1000x500.png","author_meta":{"display_name":"Bree Smolinski"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-04 05:05:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4411"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8558"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=8558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}