New research by internet safety campaigners KnowTheNet has revealed alarming findings that today’s children will feature in almost 1,000 online photos by the time they reach five years old.

According to the report: “The study revealed that 17% of parents have never checked their Facebook privacy settings and almost half (46%) have only checked once or twice, despite the social network being the most common platform for photo sharing.”

The research polled 2,000 parents on the ways in which they share images of children online, as well as testing them on their knowledge of the information that is captured when taking pictures on different devices. Despite 70% of parents claiming their main gadget for taking photos was a smartphone, fewer than half (49%) were aware that location data showing where photos were taken could be stored.’

Parents do not own copyright to images.

Another alarming finding revealed that the terms and conditions of many social media sites, including Instagram and Facebook, state that they have the right to use the uploaded photos to promote their services without explicitly asking the permission of the person that uploaded the photo.

Vicki Shotbolt, CEO and founder of The Parent Zone added, “Today’s youth is the first generation to grow up with social networks as an integral part of everyday life so it’s important we stop and think about how they might feel about content that’s shared now when they’re older. No-one would want a potential employer browsing through their baby photos, so making sure privacy settings are applied properly is always a good idea. Of course parents should feel comfortable uploading photos to social networks, but thinking about whether it’s an appropriate image first will go a long way to avoiding any unwanted repercussions in the future.”

Here are KnowTheNet's top tips when sharing photos online:

Check your privacy settings: Take a look at your social network’s privacy settings and ensure that they have been changed from the default. Make sure you’re only sharing images with the right people and avoid oversharing

Think before you upload: If it’s an image of a child, do you think they will thank you for sharing it once they’ve grown up? Consider the feelings of others before posting images – if the child isn’t your own try to ask the permission of their parent first. Most importantly, remember that once a picture is uploaded to a social media site it’s very difficult to remove all traces of it

Stay in control: Don’t use social networks as a replacement for your own photo albums or hard drive storage, as they could be at risk in the event of any technical glitches. And remember that some social networks will obtain rights to your images once you’ve uploaded them

Keep up to date: Social networks regularly add new features and update their own settings so it’s important to keep track

Source: KnowTheNet

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