Facebook, Instagram tips for parents: Why you should be careful with photos of your children

What to and what not to post on Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook, Instagram, social media, online privacy, technology news

Post responsibly, customise friend lists, control privacy settings and keep accounts secure are some of the things parents can do to keep children safe in online world.

Several surveys and studies have of late come out with reports cautioning parents against randomly posting their children’s photographs on social networking sites. The risks involved include threats from sexual predators, the scary fact that the photos can reach anywhere and anybody, exposure to people the parents have personal enmity with, besides breach of the privacy of the child who may not welcome them once grown up.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Anne Collier, who is on Facebook’s Safety Advisory Board, had previously advised that parents should never post photos of children being given a bath, with inadequate or no clothes on, or doing anything that may seem awkward to them when they find the photos on a public forum when they grow up.

Facebook has now put together some advisories for all new parents using the platform. Here are some tips for Facebook, and also Instagram, users.

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Custom friend lists: Since your aim is usually to share your baby’s photos only with family members and close friends, the best thing you can do is create custom lists to organise your FB ‘friends’. You can choose who you want to include in those lists and what privacy restrictions you want to apply. The friends don’t get notified when added to the custom lists. Once the lists are in place, every time you post something you can choose exactly who can see it.

On Facebook, you can choose the audience using the menu at the top of your post. On Instagram, you can select who to share your photo with by clicking on the Instagram Direct icon in the top right corner.

Your privacy under your control: An Instagram account can be easily made private and you can approve anyone who wants to follow you and see your photos. All you need to do is tap Profile on the bottom right, click on Edit Your Profile link next to your profile picture. Scroll down to see if “Posts Are Private” is turned on or off. On Facebook, click Privacy Checkup to go through a few quick steps to ensure that only those chosen by you can see your posts. Using Activity Log on Facebook, you can change the audience for anything you have shared, see every post you have been tagged in, and delete anything you don’t want in public domain any more.

Have secure accounts: Just like you baby-proof everything at home, this must apply to your virtual world. Make sure you have a strong password, remember to log out when done, especially when using shared devices, and turn on log-in approvals.