Bring to mind everything you have posted about your child: the birth photo, the first day of school, the party, the trip, the funny clip everyone laughed at.
\nBy the age of thirteen, parents will have posted around 1,300 photos and clips of their child, according to estimates from the British organization Internet Matters. It is a complete digital archive that began before the child learned to speak, created by two people who love him, and he was not asked permission for a single line of it.
\nThis subject, which researchers call “sharenting,” has over the past two years entered the sphere of accredited professional guidance after having been confined to the academic literature. It is no longer raised today as a technical privacy matter, but as a matter of a child’s rights.<\/p>\n
When warnings are given about posting photos of children, the mind goes straight to predators. That is a real danger, but it is not the most frequently occurring one.
\nMore frequent than it is the cumulative profile. UNICEF points out that posted photos are not read in isolation but assembled: the name of the school appears on the uniform in one photo, the name of the neighborhood in the tag of another, the date of birth in an annual greeting, the sports club in a third clip. Each one of them is innocent, and together they form a profile that knows more about the child than his father knows about his neighbors \u2014 and data brokers build these profiles automatically.
\nNext comes reuse. A posted photo can be cropped and placed into an entirely different context, turned into material for mockery or into an AI-composited image. A systematic review published in 2025 covering 21 studies on sharenting behavior identified these very risks: identity theft, exploitation, and the child’s loss of control over his own image.
\nThe third is the most important and the least mentioned: autonomy. The child who grows up to find his moments of crying, punishment, and illness posted in front of hundreds of people is not complaining about a security risk; he is complaining that nobody asked him. And by the time he turns fourteen and asks for it to be deleted, the archive will have spread beyond any possibility of recall.<\/p>\n
The Child Protection Law, issued by Royal Decree No. M\/14, defines a child as anyone who has not passed the age of eighteen. Its Article Three enumerates the forms of abuse and neglect, and its Article Fifteen establishes the responsibility of parents for the child’s care and protection.
\nThe law does not, of course, criminalize posting an ordinary family photo, but it does establish a principle that should govern the decision to post: that a child is the holder of an independent right, not an extension of his parents’ account.<\/p>\n
Many parents get their own behavior in order, and then the aunt or the grandmother posts the same photo. The request here is socially sensitive, which is why it should come in advance and in general terms rather than afterwards and personally. Tell the family once, gently and in the form of a rule rather than an accusation: we have decided not to post photos of the children, and we are grateful if you go along with us on this.
\nA rule announced before the occasion is far easier than a deletion requested after it.<\/p>\n
No school uniform and no school name, because the two together pinpoint where the child is five days a week.<\/p>\n
No live location. Post after leaving the place, not while you are there, and the same rule applies to trips and rest houses.<\/p>\n
No moments of weakness: crying, punishment, illness, failure at school, and funny situations at his expense. The test is simple: would you accept a comparable picture of yourself being posted in front of your colleagues at work?<\/p>\n
No bath photos and no underwear, because however innocent they look in their context, they do not stay in their context.<\/p>\n
Ask permission from the age of four, with a question of just a few words: may I post this picture? And his refusal is accepted as final. Asking is not because his opinion is legally binding, but because through it a parent teaches him that his body and his image belong to him \u2014 and that very lesson is what will protect him later in far more dangerous situations.<\/p>\n
One big thing changes: the child now has an audience of his own. The photo that looks endearing to a parent may be material for a full week of bullying at school for his child.
\nFrom this age onward, the veto belongs to him and not to his parent. If he says no, then the answer is no, with no negotiation and no “but it’s a lovely photo.” This is the real test of what he was taught from the age of four.<\/p>\n
A pattern has spread in recent years: setting up a dedicated account for the child, or having him permanently present in one parent’s content, with followers, comments, and sometimes financial returns. Here the nature of the question changes. The child is no longer taking part in a family memory; he has become a party to a production he never signed off on, and he may be asked to redo the scene or to appear in a particular mood.
\nTwo tests come before everything else: can he refuse to be filmed today without his refusal having consequences? And is what is being posted about him something he would accept at the age of twenty? If the answer to either is no, then the content is not about the child; it is at his expense.
\nAnd Finally: Go Back
\nSet aside half an hour this week to review what you have posted before, set your accounts to private, and delete what you regret.
\nThe archive you created yourself is the only part of your child’s digital life still under your control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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