Digital Parenting and Guardianship - Are You An Over-Sharent?

Digital Parenting and Guardianship - Are You An Over-Sharent?

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Good afternoon,
This message is those with children in the family or of close friends. Are you an 'Oversharent'?
A Sharent is someone who uses social media to share news or images of their children.
Did you know that the average child has around 1,500 photos posted online by their fifth birthday!
But how often do we ask our child if they are okay for us to share their photo online, and do we have the correct privacy settings on our social media pages before doing this?
We would you like you to think about the following things before you post another photo to your social media account:-
-Who are you sharing your family pictures with? (Check your privacy settings on ap's such as Facebook and Instagram. You can change your settings to 'only you', 'friends' or 'friends of friends' or 'everyone'.
-Have you checked your location settings on your phone before posting the picture? (Many phones automatically suggest your location when posting a photo, if it's safe to do so, you could check in to that location after you've left, but we recommend not tagging your home address, as this may leave you vulnerable online. We also recommend that when you're out for the day, you post pictures when you're home as otherwise, they will know that your house is vacant.)
-Do you share photos of your child to gain followers on social media? (From a Survey in 2017, it said that 13% of parents or caregivers do this.)
If you have done any of the above, you may be over-sharing online. This is your choice, but we wanted to explain how this can be done in a safer manner.
In this age of digital parenting and guardianship, it's important to always be looking for ways to make our and our children's online visits safer.
Thank you for your time.
Kind regards,
PCSO Lizzie Jolley 22582