Photos of DGC on social media

I meant to say, good post starbird !

Regarding Facebook.
My understanding is that even though you're posting your photos just for friends and family to see, if one of your friends clicks to 'like' a photo, anyone on that person's friends list will be able to see it as well.
They can then screenshot it and save it or post it on.
That's how photos can become viral.

You might think you're being careful but best to assume that if you post something online, you're happy for the world to see it.

Before I retired, I was responsible for internet safety in school. We spent a great deal of time and effort educating children about not posting photos and info about themselves online. Once it is up there, it is there for ever, as these things are spread very quickly on the internet. As long as settings are private I'm ok, but many people are not aware of making sure your settings are private, or even how to do this in the first place. It's a terrible world out there and some people are very adept at using photos on social media to target children. They are very clever at gaining info by looking at background, school uniforms etc. Many people are very naive and perhaps don't realise that it is so easy to manipulate photos of children, posted online. I knew of a child 8 years old, with a Facebook account (You have to be 14), posing in bikinis, with open settings. I was horrified. I know this sounds as if I am overreacting. Of course it's lovely to be able to view your family photos online, but please keep it within the family and make your settings private.

This is my understanding of two possible dangers of posting pictures - there might be more:
One, a picture of a very cute child or baby could be copied and used to circulate on facebook for an appeal for funds because they supposedly have cancer or some other illness or whatever. This has been known to happen.
Two, if a person can work out the name of a young person from the post, and know the town where the poster lives (this information is available on facebook if you have put it there) then a paedophile could trace the child and approach them, call them by name, claim to be a friend, knowing various things about them, and strike up a relationship.
If you have only family and close well known friends, and strong privacy settings, it is safe, but it is unbelievable how many people's facebook pages are open to the public. Even if your page is secure, one of your friends and family ( eg teenage nephews and nieces) may have unsecure pages which (I assume but am not sure about) could show your posts to them. You can choose a setting for your posts that says 'friends only' and make sure it does not say 'friends of friends'.
Also, with modern editing apps, anybody's picture can be copied and changed and made to look different. This could lead to anything. Unfortunately It is a sign of the times we live in.

I usually ask them if they are old enough, or ask the parents if they are too young, and definately do not put pictures of them naked, in the bath or at the seaside etc, these days you never know, with some odd people able to access, its a shame its become like this,I love to see photos of my nieces and nephews on Facebook, as I dont see them in reality we live so far away.

Even if you set your Facebook privacy settings to be the most secure you still can't stop the people you are friends with sharing a photo and beyond them you have no control over who sees a picture. Personally I never and would never post pics of my grandchildren. My daughter does (as do many of her friends) and that's up to her but they are not my children and I do not consider I have the right to share their pictures.

I don't post pictures of any one in my family without their permission and would never post pictures of my grandchildren. I have very strict security on my Facebook page but that won't stop any of my friends from "liking" or sharing any photo I post for their friends to see. The is very little privacy, if any, on social media.

My son used to have a fascination with flushing the toilet to make things disappear ( Lego and the like). I took a great pic of him in a nappy dropping toys into the loo and swishing it around. Imagine if that was nowadays and I posted it online then 40 years later he became a VIP Silly, but potentially extremely embarrassing.

I do not have a Facebook site, but DH does. It is lovely to see photos of family children, that perhaps I would otherwise not have seen. But, here is my dilemma, as I said, I love to catch up on photos, but when DH posted a photo of me and him , I got very upset and quite angry in fact. I asked him to take it down, which he did. I didn't want my picture for all and sundry to see, although he said it was for friends and family only. But, he hadn't asked me if I minded. I still don't know why I got so uppity, silly perhaps in hindsight, but stand by my request to have it removed. Was I unreasonable? I hope not.

My precious twinnies are five today, having arrived a scary two months early. I'll be posting birthday photos and my DD won't object at all. My settings are friends only though. I suppose that it depends on whether your children are happy for you to do it. All of mine are happy to see my pics of the GC on social media.

The problem is that any photos that are posted on Facebook become the rights of Facebook under their terms and conditions. Also no photo on Facebook is limited to certain people as friends of friends of friends etc can see it! My code is if it is a photo I'm happy to show anywhere then I will post it, if it's something that could cause the child to be embarrassed about( however funny now) later, then I won't!!

We have never put any photos or indeed news about our granddaughter on social media.

SiL1 is very strict about this. We are not allowed to post photos of his children on any social media sites. I'm not on FB but you will see that although I have photos of my dog, none of my 6 grandchildren.

I have firm instructions from my daughter NOT to put my gch's photos on the Internet without her permission. I think part of the problem is that then Friends could copy and send them to a wider audience and you don't know where they will end up and you lose control of the photos.

I always check with my daughter before putting photos/videos of my grandson on social media. I love seeing photos of friends' children/grandchildren on there. I don't think any of them have ever posted any pics that would embarrass their children in future. Why would you?

I share the occasional one, friends only, and with the parents' consent per photo. I choose the ones where the child is in a dignified pose that they are unlikely to be embarrassed by later.

My family have switched to posting them on messenger. Private and secure.

My family do share photographs of children, with the privacy suggestions here adhered to. We have friends whose adult children don't want their own photographs, or those of their children shared on Facebook or other similar sites. I don't know anyone who'd post a photograph of a child on a potty or in the bath on Facebook. There is much greater awareness, thankfully, that there is a danger such images could be miss used.
I've heard of photographs being cropped so indecent images can be shared by those with that kind of desire. As our Facebook pages can be hacked, its something to be aware of. It's a great pity that the internet has made it so much easier for images of child abuse to be shared. Sorry to introduce such a horrible topic but I suspect its at the heart of a lot of parents decision not to post photographs.

In answer to the op, I do not see a problem with a grandparent posting photos of babies and young children on FB, providing all the measures described by Ana & Anya are taken and parental permission given. Caution and control are the bywords.

When our first Gc were babies, I posted quite a few for my FB friends abroad but with GC3,4,5, I am much more frugal with my photos, attaching them on private messages often instead of Fb.

I can see that photos posted on GN have a wider, less selective audience and , therefore, posting identifiable images would not be wise.

Can't live our lives wondering 'what if' Antonia and if some over-sensitive little moppets object in the future then tough!

My point is that the children themselves may object in the future. There are several of my FB friends who delightedly post the scanned photos of their child in the womb. I can imagine that the future adult could object to these photos of themselves, shared on social media before they were even born.

I don't suppose it's a problem if the parents give their consent but I still wouldn't do it. Even a picture of a baby in a bath makes me feel uneasy. You just don't know who is looking in.

Maybe the world has gone mad.

I can understand your comment if we were talking about naked children Merlot but a picture of a fully clothed child baking or reading a book ?

That's a world gone mad if that's a problem .

Open websites like Gransnet can be viewed by anyone. It's not a good idea to put pictures of small children on a site like this.

Yes, everyone ought to check their privacy settings. There's also a code of practice re posting photos of your grandchildren. Firstly you need to know that as a general rule their parents don't mind and secondly you should tag their parents to let them know you are posting a photo of their child on your FB page.

As Ana said it's important these are only available to friends and family.