Who doesn’t want to capture their children’s little moments? For parents, photographs preserve memories that become precious reminders of childhood. But in an age when taking a picture and posting it online takes only seconds, those memories can also haunt a child forever.
Children can be particularly vulnerable when their photographs are shared online without careful thought.
A picture that seems harmless to a parent can be copied, manipulated or misused. This raises an important question: do we think enough about what could happen to our children’s photographs after they are posted online?
We should be aware of the cybercrime
A child’s photograph can become more than a privacy concern once it is made publicly available. Cybercriminals and online predators can save, manipulate and redistribute images without the family’s consent.
Cybercrime is any illegal activity carried out using computers or the internet. Children can easily become victims of various forms of cybercrime. UNICEF has warned that children’s photographs are increasingly being manipulated into sexualised deepfakes, while perpetrators are also using altered images as tools for online exploitation and extortion.
The issue becomes more serious when AI tools make it easier to create convincing fake images from ordinary photographs shared on social media.
At least 1.2 million young people said their images had been manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes in 2025, according to a study conducted in 11 countries by a UN agency, INTERPOL and the ECPAT global network, which works to end the sexual exploitation of children.
In some countries, this represented one in every 25 children — roughly the equivalent of one child in a typical classroom.
Deepfakes are AI-generated or manipulated images, videos or audio designed to look real. They are increasingly being used to create sexualised content involving children, including through “nudification”, where AI tools alter photographs to make children appear nude or sexually exposed, said in a UNICEF report.
Think carefully before posting
Parents can reduce risks by being selective about what they share. Embarrassing stories, personal details and photographs that a child may later find humiliating are better kept private. Before posting, parents should try to consider the situation from their child’s perspective.
Photographs showing children undressed should never be shared online. While parents may consider such images innocent, they could be misused by people with harmful intentions.
Parents should also talk openly with relatives and friends if they do not want photographs of their children posted online.
Sharing children’s images on social media is relatively new, and not everyone may have considered its consequences. Clear communication can help ensure that others understand and respect the parents’ wishes.
Schools and other organisations can also be asked whether they have policies governing the sharing of children’s photographs and personal information. If there is no policy, parents can suggest creating one, as other families may also want greater control over how their children’s images are used.
Be selective about what you share
There is no completely risk-free way to share photographs online. Families must weigh the benefits of sharing against the potential risks.
Parents who choose to post should consider who can see the images, how private their social media accounts are and how well they know their followers or friends.
They should also think about how much information a photograph reveals. Locations, school logos and other identifiable features can disclose details about a child’s life. Parents should consider whether such information could become embarrassing or harmful in the future.
One option is to cover a child’s face with an emoji. There have been claims that someone could simply remove the emoji using photo-editing software, reported The Guardian.
However, multiple privacy experts and a Guardian photo editor say this is not true. Once the edited image is posted to a social network, the layers are merged and cannot be separated.
Experts recommend making the edit directly on the device rather than through Instagram, Snapchat or another social platform.
Parents can then take a screenshot of the edited image and upload that version, helping protect the original photograph from being scraped or processed by the platform.
Another option is to take photographs from behind or at an angle that does not show the child’s face.
Limit access to your photographs
Parents should regularly check which apps have access to photographs on their devices. Many social media and messaging services allow users to select individual images rather than giving an app access to the entire camera roll.
Sending photographs through encrypted messaging or email or sharing an iCloud or Google Photos album with a small group of trusted people, can provide more controlled alternatives.
Closed group chats or private Facebook groups can also limit exposure. Keeping such groups to around 10 to 20 trusted people can make sharing more private, but everyone should understand that photographs must not be shared outside the group without permission.
Protect your accounts
Parents may also worry about hackers accessing their children’s photographs or images being exposed through data leaks. Although such incidents are possible, the risk of hackers specifically targeting children’s photographs is considered remote.
However, photographs could become part of a larger collection of personal data involved in a ransomware attack. Parents should therefore take the same precautions they would use for other personal information.
Strong passwords, two-factor authentication, updated software and regular privacy checks can help protect photographs stored or shared through apps and online services.
Ultimately, parents should weigh the advantages of sharing their children’s photos against the potential risks.
Before posting a photograph, it is worth asking not only whether it is appropriate today, but also how the child might feel about it, years from now.
