CNIL: Don't Share Kids' Photos on Social Media
Parents who share photos and videos of their children on social media for "sharenting" shouldn't because it creates risks to their kids, French data protection agency CNIL said Monday.
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Kids' images can be misused for malicious purposes, the watchdog said, according to an unofficial translation. For example, some parents post naked photos of their child, which are then used to create fake profiles, share the images with strangers or distribute them on child porn networks. The images can often be retrieved even by those who aren't in a parent's contact list, either because the profile is public or because a contact has shared them publicly with other "friends."
AI makes the situation worse by facilitiating the creation of deepfakes, CNIL noted, which can lead to bullying, cyberbullying and increased pedophilia activities.
In addition, images taken on smartphones or cameras contain data that can reveal personal information about children, such as their location, the time when the photos were taken, kids' interests or places they frequent, CNIL said.
It also said creating a digital identity can harm children in the long term, leaving hundreds of photos that they will find hard to erase when they're adults. It cited a 2018 British study that found that parents of 13-year-olds have already published an average of 1,300 photos of them on social media.
For those who want to continue sharing such content, CNIL offered some best practices to follow. These included sharing via instant messages, emails or MMS instead of social media, asking loved ones not to share photos or videos of their kids without consent, and seeking consent from kids before posting photos or videos. Parents must also ask for consent from the other parent before sharing, the authority said.
Parents should also avoid sharing sensitive photos and videos, such as those showing children in a swimsuit or bath, and should hide their faces, CNIL said. It's also important for them to secure their social media accounts and reduce visibilty of their posts to prevent strangers from accessing the content.
In France, it's the parents who in principle exercise the rights of minor cnildren, but the CNIL said it believes children should be able to exercise those rights directly with regard to their personal data on social networks. Kids can, for example, request that videos and photos about them be erased without parental agreement, and social networks must then delete the content as soon as possible. If they don't, children or parents can contact the police in some situations and complain to CNIL, it said.