The first day of school is just around the corner. Are you getting ready to capture the moment and share it on your social media accounts? Sharing pictures and videos of your children online can come with risks. Could you be oversharing without realizing it?
“Sharenting” or “oversharenting” are relatively new terms that combine the words “oversharing” and “parenting” to describe the actions of those who often post about their children or grandchildren’s lives online. Some parents even make it their livelihood. It’s important to note that Quebec does not currently have laws that regulate the specific practice of sharenting, as opposed to places like France or the American state of Illinois. But this doesn’t mean that anything goes when sharing pictures, videos or information online.
Children have the right to control photos and videos of themselves
Children, like everyone else, have the right to protect their image. You must get consent from a child or their parent before posting content in which the child can be recognized, whether it’s a photo, a video, an Instagram story or a reel. Posting without consent could be considered a violation of the child’s right to control and protect their image, as well as their private life. Simply hiding the child’s face by covering it with an emoji or by blurring it out is not enough to protect their private life. This same rule applies when you post content featuring an adult.
However, exceptions exist. For example, you don’t need consent to post a picture of a crowd taken at a public event like a festival. You also don’t need consent from individuals who are in the background of pictures taken in front of a historic monument like the Château Frontenac.
Acting in your child’s best interests
Before a child turns 18, it’s usually a parent that gives consent on their behalf. When you yourself post your child on social media, you implicitly give this consent.
When deciding whether to consent or post, or not, you must always act in your child’s best interests. This means that, before publishing an image of your child on social media, you must assess the consequences for their privacy, safety and well-being based on things like their personal characteristics, needs, age and character.
Posting a photo or video can have serious consequences for your child. For example, it could affect their reputation, dignity or self-esteem. Taken out of context, images of their daily life could expose them to ridicule and cyberbullying. As your child ages, they may also feel uncomfortable with the knowledge that images of them have circulated on social media.
Also, images can be easily misused by online predators, even if they were only shared privately. For example, predators can feed the images into AI tools to create child sexual abuse material.
Things to consider before posting
Want to share images of your kids on your social media accounts, but don’t know where to start? Here are a few things to consider before posting:
- Respect your child’s privacy. When in doubt, stick to posting content in which they can’t be identified or recognized.
- Avoid publishing photos in which your child is nude or underdressed. This could be a crime. These images can also be misused or manipulated by cybercriminals.
- Take your child’s opinion and personality into account. When your child is older, make sure you have their consent. For example, agree on the type of post, the choice of audience (public page vs. private group, for example) and frequency of posts. Building a reputation starts young!
- Make sure you have the other parent’s consent before you publish. In a recent judgment, a court decided that the right to share images of one’s children online could be limited in the event of disagreement with the child’s other parent.
- Let your loved ones know your preferences when it comes to sharing images of your children online.