Taking a photo of your kid on the first day of school is a popular ritual, as evidenced by all the sweet smiling faces you might be seeing on Instagram right now.
But according to legal and security experts, parents would ideally not share these images online at all.
“I think people need to understand that once an image is out there, you can’t take it back. While you may be able to delete it, it doesn’t mean that other copies of it don’t exist elsewhere,” said Doug Levin, director of the K12 Security Information eXchange, a nonprofit that helps protect school districts from cybersecurity risks.
In their proud social media posts, some parents might include signs or boards that display their children’s names and the name of their school. “Now people know not only what your child looks like, but where she goes to school,” said Mark McCreary, a Philadelphia-based lawyer at Fox Rothschild who co-chairs the firm’s privacy and data security practice.
If a scammer knows what grade your child is in, who their teacher is and where they go to school, they can easily “send you a very convincing email to cause you to give [them more] information,” McCreary said. He gave the example of a scammer impersonating a teacher who asks for your child’s Social Security number.
The amount of money people have lost from online crimes that targeted children has more than tripled, from half a million in 2022 to over $2 million in 2023, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
Even if a photo you post is innocuous, the image of your child can also be exploited in cybercrimes.
“One of the concerning trends that we have seen is that people have been taking images of ― in some cases― young children, and using AI tools to alter those images and essentially use them for bullying, or worse, against those kids,” Levin said.
In 2023, the FBI released a warning that victims including minor children were having their social media photos or videos altered into explicit content.
As a result of these security and privacy risks, both Levin and McCreary said they would recommend not sharing any back-to-school photos on social media and would instead advise sending those photos to a private group chat with trusted people.
Experts recognize that parents will continue to post photos of their children on social media, regardless. “I know that people get a lot of value from staying connected with friends and family,” Levin said.
There are riskier and safer ways to post photos of your family online. If you’re a parent who still wants to share that back-to-school photo, experts say you should avoid the following:
1. Sharing Information About Routines Or Your Home Address
The setting of your back-to-school photo can expose more than you think. Be careful not to post in front of your house number or in front of your child’s bus stop.
“Anytime you’re taking photos and you’re showing what time it was, or that the child stands on this intersection to pick up the bus, you’re disclosing the routine,” McCreary said.
2. Sharing Details About Your Child’s Interests
What your child is wearing can reveal their hobbies ― and make them an easier target for bad actors. Levin gave examples of a child wearing a shirt that shows what sports they play at school.
Even a small school badge can be revealing. Blur out school logos that can appear on a uniform so it is harder for a stranger to learn where they attend school.
3. Showing Your Child’s Face
Putting an emoji over a kid’s face “allows you to participate in that back-to-school ritual” while better preserving a child’s privacy, Levin suggested.
By removing the face, it’s harder for the image to be “used to train AI models to create problems,” Levin added.
4. Making The Post Viewable To Strangers
Do you know who is following your social media account? Too many adults do not. In a 2021 survey by Security.org, 8 in 10 parents said they had followers on social media that they had never met in real life.
Parents should check who is following them online and remove people you would not want to see your child, said Cameron Carlyle, a University of Florida law student who, with law professor Stacey Steinberg, has researched the effects of parents sharing about their children online — also known as “sharenting,” a term Steinberg coined.
“My first recommendation would be to review your friends list,” Carlyle said.
If you can, make your posts ephemeral so that they disappear after a set time. Posting a back-to-school photo in an Instagram Story that disappears after 24 hours is safer than posting on your main feed, for example.
Levin stressed that posting in an ephemeral channel is not a “100% guarantee” that a bad actor will not screenshot that photo for nefarious purposes.
That’s why experts recommend keeping back-to-school photos in a group chat or an email thread with family. “In email, you have a better sense of who the recipient is, and so it’s similar to a closed or a private group in social media,” Levin said.
Or you can go one step further and share your child’s milestones offline only.
“We do the old-fashioned thing and get a picture printed and put them in a frame and give them as gifts to grandparents,” Levin said.