Digital Footprints – On the Internet a digital footprint is the word used to describe the trail, traces or “footprints” that people leave online. Posting photos of your kids create such trail that forms their identities in a world they haven’t chosen to enter.
Hiding anonymity and publicizing your child – It is always wise to keep that once identity until the person wants him/herself exposed. It may thus not be something we think about all the time but the truth is we should take control of our child’s digital identity.
Selling for free data to those who collect it – Everything you post has information that is valuable to advertisers and data collectors; posting a photo of a kid identifies you as someone who might be interested in baby products.
Targeted Advertising – Data collection online more often than not leads to targeted advertising by social networks or sale of this data to third parties. This is the business model for most, it not all, social networks.
Digital Kidnapping – You might not be aware of it but there is a growing crime called ‘digital kidnapping’ in which individuals or companies steal children’s images and use their images in advertisements or more sinister things.
Digital kidnapping is the latest form of identity theft, and it can happen to any parent who posts pictures of kids online. Perpetrators will “steal” photos of children on social media and then claim to be their parents, even giving them fictitious new names.
You may be sharing your child’s location without knowing – GPS-enabled phones and location tracking integrated into photos by your camera or smartphone may offer up sensitive information like your child’s school address, your family’s home address, and other places you frequent like church, recreational places or shopping centers malls.
When an individual develops negative motives to you and your family your child may fall victim. The person may even do the “unthinkable.”
You can’t take it back – This is true, and the most painful truth. Online photo is like virginity, once uploaded there you cannot take it back.
It’s always out there, on a server, and even if you tighten up your privacy settings, a picture or video, once shared online, can, with a few indiscreet clicks by family or friends, become public property.
Even if you share the image then delete it, there is not telling that someone had not saved it to their computer already!
And finally you Lose control of your images – Once you post a photo online, you lose control over it. Someone could easily copy the photo, tag it, save it, or otherwise use it — and you might never know.
Credit omgvoice.com