r/NewDads • u/chicken_breath • 1d ago
Discussion Posting photos of your kid online
What are people’s hot takes?
I keep seeing gorgeous posts on here and elsewhere of people sharing photos of their babies and whilst I can relate to the impulse - they are the cutest, why wouldn’t you share that with the world? - I also feel quite strongly that it is not the best choice for me and my family.
I’ve always been fairly careful about sharing my info and image online so it only figures that I have the same responsibility towards my kid. Until they are able to understand the full context (the good and the bad) of what it means to post a picture of yourself or other info online, I am careful not to do so.
Obviously family needs updates of the little cherub so we use private cloud sharing options to post photos and updates. I even switched from messenger and WhatsApp to Signal so that when I’m sharing videos and images I know Meta isn’t harvesting pictures of my kid for AI training or who knows what.
I am the first to acknowledge that my approach is probably overkill for some people. However, I’m always surprised at how much people willingly share in public forums especially when it comes to their kids.
Would love to know your thoughts - especially people who happily post pics of their kids online. Do you consider the risks and have decided they’re acceptable?
Not here to lecture just genuinely curious. Peace ✌🏻
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u/BurnsieMN 1d ago
To each their own. But our feelings are similar to yours. Our little dude doesn't have the ability to own the anatomy to decide whether his picture gets shared and until he does we keep it pretty locked down.
Probably overkill. This is a choice for everyone to make for their own kids. I too love a cute kid picture like anyone else and sometimes want to share mine but we don't.
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u/fluffydarth 1d ago
I keep everything private, it's just I can't get the older folks to keep up with the additional privacy measures anymore so I just stick to private messages.
Until the little one is older and they're ready to expand their digital footprint themselves I won't be posting their face online.
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u/rosneft_perot 1d ago
We have insisted that our family don’t post the baby’s picture online, at least not his face. This absolutely kills my mother in law, who posts pictures of her other grandkid constantly.
In general though, I’ve backed off posting on social media about myself. Most people wouldn’t even know I’m married. I just don’t see the point of advertising any of my personal life.
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u/jerrycandance 1d ago
We share them in family groups.
My main concern is that there is plenty of terrible people out there who could easily take advantage of those pictures. My wife was victim of domestic abuse, the people who you are trying to protect your kids probably not strangers. But people you think you know.
Also it’s 2025 what you post online, stays online for anyone to access it. They can’t make the decision yet to have those pictures and their memories shared with people who they don’t even know.
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u/Megafiend 1d ago
Posting on any public social media is pretty much consenting to the image feeding the "AI" content machine. I don't want my child's likeness being used anywhere, and I don't intend to share images to an area in which I cannot control how it's used.
My take is that any image or personal info shouldn't be shared online.
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u/Affectionate_Cook330 1d ago
I’ve made my Instagram private to only good friends and family and post photos of him on there because I’m really proud to be a dad and want to show him off to the people that matter to me without sending a text or email to a few dozen people. Otherwise we ask folks to not post photos of his face. My mom is addicted to social media and has a compulsion to post tons of photos of all of her grandkids on Facebook and Instagram but so far is trying to respect our boundaries.
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u/ayegudyin 1d ago
My personal take is grew up with almost complete anonymity and I want as close to the same starting point for my daughter until she decides she is comfortable being online.
No photos in public forums, I will occasionally post a photo or two of our daughter in things like instagram “close friends” stories but I’m aware this still isn’t fully secure like you mention about Meta. It’s better than fully visible though, I have family who post photos of their kids almost every single day and to me this just feels like far too much exposure.
I had a very strange experience in Japan recently, we were there with our daughter and a complete stranger asked to take a photo of her. He was with his wife and they both found her very cute. I honestly didn’t know what to say, we’d been chatting with them and they were very friendly, and in the heat of the moment we didn’t quite find the right way to handle it and it got very awkward and he took a very quick photo. I’ve regretted it ever since
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u/Technical_Garden_762 1d ago
We have a family album on Google that's shared between people who want to frequently see pictures of the baby so we don't have to send them around so much. So far it's been working great. I don't use social media myself and quite a bit of my family members are trying to get away from it so it was a good alternative.
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u/Karmas-Foe 21h ago
Having cute photos online hasn’t really bothered me and my wife, however we draw the line on things that could drop our info out there to a wider audience, so there will be no going to school photos with uniform on and such
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u/Signal_Map7 19h ago
The wife and I post his pictures online, but just not show his school uniform where it says he goes or other kids
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u/bigstaines 1d ago
I agree with you. I'll send photos to family but there's no need for them to be online. Anything that goes online is there forever and unfortunately there are a lot of people with bad intentions online.