Posting Images Online

Social media can be a great way to keep family and friends up-to-date on milestones and achievements in your child’s life. However, it is important to be mindful of what personal information and content you may be sharing. 

Need to know 

Images and videos of children posted to social media can be used by online predators to build a profile to groom parents or children. Content uploaded to social media may inadvertently contain personal information and could reveal a lot about yourself and your child. 

Identifying information often shared online can include: 

• Age (or school grade)
• Full name 
• School or sports team (particularly at back-to-school time) 
• Address (including street number) 
• Interests/hobbies 
• A trusted adult’s full name 

Everyday images of children may also end up in the collections of online predators. These can be images of children engaging in everyday activities, including bath-time, sports and swimming carnivals, or just children being out and about.

Top Tips

• Use strong privacy settings for accounts where you post content of your child. Set up your accounts to ’private’ or ‘friends only’ 
• Manage your follower/friends list regularly, and only share to those you trust. 
• Consider a group chat with trusted family and friends rather than posting to social media. 
• Check the background for identifying information. (like public signs, street signs, house numbers) 
• If your child is wearing a uniform, consider blurring the school logo or covering with an emoji.
• Question suspicious friend requests and followers 
• Question and report suspicious comments or contact from users, particularly if these are regarding your child. 

https://www.thinkuknow.org.au/resources-tab/parents-and-carers