A new study has revealed that, on average, parents post 200 photos of their children every year, although the majority of those sharing the pics online don’t check privacy settings regularly.
The research, which was commissioned by Nominet for its online safety campaign knowthenet, shows that the figure rises as children get older, with parents of those under the age of 16 sharing on average 208 images of their children online a year. It also reveals that 17 per cent of parents have never checked their Facebook privacy settings and almost half have only checked once or twice.
Conducted by the Parent Zone, the study asked 2,000 parents about the ways they share images of children online, as well as testing their knowledge of the information captured when taking pictures on different devices. Despite 70 per cent of parents claiming their main gadget for taking photos was a smartphone, less than half were aware that location data showing where photos were taken could be stored.
Many social media sites, including Facebook and Instagram, state they have the right to use uploaded images to promote their services without explicitly asking permission. However, the study said that 39 per cent of the parents polled believed they own the sole rights to images posted on Facebook, with 17 per cent thinking the same for Instagram.
The research also found that 25 per cent confess to never asking permission of the people in photos before posting them, and over half have uploaded a photo of a child that wasn’t their own.
Nominet CEO, Russell Haworth says, “We all love to share those precious moments in our children’s lives with friends and family and sites like Facebook have made it easier than ever. While the web helps relatives to keep in touch and participate in our everyday lives, it also has the potential to lead to accidental oversharing. It’s important to ensure that the correct privacy settings are in place to safeguard our personal information and content. Parents are creating a large digital footprint for their child from a young age, and the right settings are important if you want to stay in control.”
