Welcome to “opt out”. This is a semi-regular column about how to take control of your online privacy and say no to surveillance.
In our last column, we discussed how to protect your baby’s photos on the Internet.
You are the parent and it is a public decision. Posting your baby’s face on the internet is not for you. You now know how to actually protect your baby photos on the internet (probably because you read our guide!). All that’s left is to do it.
But wait. Minutes after my friend came to meet her baby for the first time, she posted a photo on Instagram. Emojis won’t cover your child’s face and will be visible to all their friends and even everyone on the internet. It’s not my friend’s fault! They were so excited for you that they were so excited.
To make this a little easier, we surveyed some people, including experts and parents, about how they deal with this problem.
Be prepared for an awkward conversation
It’s common for friends and relatives to post about unwanted babies. Shortly after my son was born, I didn’t make any big statements about whether or how I would post photos of him. I just wanted people to ask before posting anything or notice that my husband and I don’t post pictures of our faces. What followed was a very awkward dance where people were asked to take pictures. Everyone was nice and treated us with respect, but the conversations were not pleasant.
Calling out a person or their post can feel awkward, rude, and very awkward. But it’s also really important. Personal rules for handling your child’s privacy are only effective if those who may be around your child know and abide by them.
It may be best to avoid the topic until tensions are high. But from experience, it’s far more unpleasant to ask someone to remove a photo than to proactively tell them that you don’t post photos of your children and want them to follow suit.
Thankfully, the experts we spoke to found that fewer people are posting photos of other parents’ children without first asking permission. Online privacy expectations for children are changing for the better.
“Open conversations about digital etiquette are starting to happen,” says Stephen Balkam of the Family Online Safety Institute. “It’s weird and awkward at first, but it gets easier over time. ‘Can I smoke outside?’ It became normal behavior.” If you had done that in the 60s, you would have been looked at like an alien. ”
make a simultaneous announcement
Instead of having lots of individual conversations, find a way to tell everyone about your child’s photo plans at once. This makes it a little less painful, but also less likely that someone will post a photo of your child in an offensive way.
Some of my friends have announced the birth of their children on social media and have decided not to share photos of their children because they want their children to decide whether or not to share their life stories on the app. added. In one case, they asked their friends and family to tread with the same caution.
When sharing photos in a group chat, most services allow you to edit the title, so you can include some sort of disclaimer in the chat name. Some options: “Don’t share anything else” or…
Source: www.theguardian.com
