Sometimes, NOT sharing is caring...

When it comes to Social Media and apps designed to share or post images and videos (such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat etc.), over-sharing has been a much talked about topic in the media in the past few weeks.

We have learnt that the average parent shares over 900 images of their child online before their child turns five, despite 17% of parents admitting they had never checked their Facebook privacy settings.

Kids themselves also share en extraordinary amount of images online. Again, often without privacy settings on social media or through multi media sharing apps.

Without privacy settings, or if you have social media "friends" whom you don't know in real life, your child's images and videos are potentially shared with any of the over 3 billion worldwide internet users.

Bear in mind also that nearly 90% of images shared with others online are later re-distributed or re-used (there is even an illegal online retail market for child images). By over-sharing, Parents and children are  creating a digital footprint their child has no control over. And with facial recognition already being used by social networks in some parts of the world, it is only a matter of time until it comes to our shores and apart from a digital footprint, all existing images will then become part of your child's digital "face print".

So, what can you do as a parent to reduce the risk of your child's pictures and videos finding their way outside of your circle of "friends"?

1. Think twice before sharing - simply reduce the amount of images shared

2. Implement tight privacy settings - Make sure that only those you want to can see your kids images. Find out how easy it is to do so through one of our video tutorials on our website: http://www.immunizenet.com/privacy-settings