Parents who share photos of kids on social media given identify theft warning

Many parents enjoy sharing a few photos of their children on social media. However, one mum has shared an identity theft warning with any people that do this. Sarah, known as @mom.uncharted on Instagram, often shares tips on how to keep kids safe online with her 73,500 followers. And in one of her latest posts, she tackled the issue of sharing kids photos online.

The influencer shared a picture of a mum hugging her baby, as overlay text read: "Nobody warns you about this when you start posting your kids online..." The next slide then read: "By age 13, the average child has 1,300+ photos of them posted online by their parents.

"And those innocent baby photos? They can be harvested for identity theft, facial recognition databases, and synthetic fraud long before your child can say 'privacy'."

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She then continued: "A study by Barclays predicts that sharenting will account for two-thirds of identity fraud facing young people by 2030.

"Let that sink in. Think before you share. Your child's future digital safety depends on it."

The post quickly went viral, racking up more than 8,600 likes.

One mum replied: "This is exactly why social media gets a 'carefully cultivated' view of my daughter!"

While another added: "I will never understand why parents have a need to share their baby's photos or videos.

"I think they want attention that they can't get in a real life, and trying to attract it online by putting child's privacy at risk."

A third chimed in: "I’m so glad other people are finally speaking out about this. People act like I am ridiculous for not plastering my kids online."

Someone people who already have posted their kids photos online asked for advice, as one mum wrote: "Now that I know better and am working to do better - what is best practice for handling the historical photos posted previously? Should I delete them, or is that bridge already burned?"

Meanwhile someone else pointed out: "If our kids will have a problem with identity theft then won’t we have the same issues ourselves with thousands of photos of us online?"