Baby Photos on Social Media

Knottie1446045513

What are your thoughts to posting photos of your babies and children to social media platforms? It seems like our Facebook feeds are a flood of baby photos right now and I love keeping up with all the faces and precious moments but we decided not to share any photos with our son's face on social media until he's old enough to understand a little about how the internet works.

We have a lot of long distance relatives and most of my husband's family lives overseas so in the meantime we've been using the Tiny Beans app which is actually great, it gives us a calendar of our baby's photos and includes a section to track milestones and special moments. I'd recommend it even if you are posting to social for all of the grandparents who aren't on Facebook and Instagram to be able to keep up with the baby. It also includes liking,commenting and photo flashbacks which makes it feel a little more social than a shared folder of photos or something. 

Even though I ultimately think this is the right move, sometimes I feel a little left out of the social media baby boom that's happening with all of our friends right now. Is anyone else keeping their kids off of their social networks? How do you feel about it?

meggyme

We use google shared photo albums to share the majority of our pictures.

chelsea-marie2

We plan to keep our children off of social media. I know it is going to be a tough thing to constantly inforce around my millenial relatives and friends, but it's our choice. I don't want our children growing up having to worry about what we have posted about them on social media. When they are 13 they will be able to have a social media account and can begin sharing their photos with the world when they're ready. For now, we will use google photos to share with our relatives.

mandyjeffersen

We know a partner couple who always chose to tell everyone on special occasions that all the photos their guests takes, they have to keep to themselves, and that they are the only ones that put pictures up on social media platforms. This way, they can actually control what pictures are put on social media and not. I think it is a good idea. That way, if they have a private instagram profile, they can control who and who is not seeing the pictures.

However, I guess social media platforms actually have the rights to your photos as soon as you upload them, right? So maybe it does not make that much of a difference. Maybe it is just about deciding whether or not we want our babies and children "online".

Lark2013

You are not alone! I refuse to post photos of my LO - for a number of reasons.  #1) They will have enough time to do that when they are older, they don't need me doing it for them.  #2) Once it's out there, it can never come back, and God only knows what can be done with photos. #3) I am not just my child's parent.  Too many parents have feeds filled with their kids.  It's YOUR profile, not theirs - make it about your life, not a chronicle of theirs.  #4) If I want pictures of your kids, I'll ask.  Please do the same of me.

emmaa20

Use google shared photo albums,too.

betmommyof2

We decided to posting photos of baby’s just without showing their faces or where they are not visible , when kids get older we will posting photos and share with friends on social networks 

emma_jayne1989

It's an interesting one. We post a few photos to social media that include our girls and for us it's not a big deal (nothing that they might be embarrased by when they're older). But mostly we have a private photo album on Facebook that we only give access to close family members, and post regular updates there.

annemarie96

My husband and I post pictures every now and then, all fully clothed, never anything we feel they would be embarrassed about later. We never poke fun at them online even in the most understandable ways, like the tags you see that are along the lines of #whymykidiscrying, or anything with that attitude. They’re little humans, and they/our family doesn’t owe anyone pictures. People sometimes comment that I should post more pictures and I just smile and ignore them because my kid doesn’t exist to entertain them, even if they only mean it in a nice way. I’m not letting that influence me. 😂 
I do think this topic can get a little extreme and out of hand, because we, the parents, have responsibility over all aspects of the child’s life. To say you need consent is hilarious to me. I don’t need consent from my 3 year old who doesn’t understand these things. In all aspects of life I will put in the work to try to understand how the decision will affect her and then act accordingly. I’m in charge of her safety and life, not her. 

I don’t think if my parents had shared tasteful pictures on occasion it would have ever bothered me. I think most people would agree. 

turtletaylor0522

I have an Instagram account. It is the only social media I have and it’s private. I’m very careful about who I let follow me. I don’t even have old “friends” (like high schoolmates) following me- if I don’t know you well enough to smile if you text me, you can’t follow me on Instagram. 

I do post photos of my son. He’s 10 weeks old and I’ve shared two photos of him. Nothing like bath pictures, and never any identifying information, like his birthday, middle name, or other information that I wouldn’t want on the internet… because it could end up anywhere! Anyone I wanted to know that info already does from his birth announcements. 

Also, I always respect my son’s personhood. I’m not going to complain about or make fun of him, as someone else said they were mindful of. I think that is a very important thing. He will have access to this one day. I don’t want him to ever feel disrespected. I’m not going to paint his butt like a pumpkin for Halloween and post about his “bum-kin” (yes I saw someone do that last year), I’m not going to put him in odd situations or pose him in his sleep to get a “funny” picture, and I’m going to make sure nothing private in in the shot (like a monogram with his middle initial or paperwork with medical information). 

It’s something I thought long and hard about, but I decided I feel comfortable with simple portraits of him and family photos that include him on social media. 

debbiere

My husband and I are of the opinion that, in principle, we do not share our personal lives on our social networks. Unless we can post some photo that is very significant for us. We showed the child only a couple of times, and this publication was not completely devoted to him. I don’t think that this can somehow harm the child, because there are no people on our social networks whom we would not know at all in real life