Posting photos of your kids: how to share more safely
Sharing family moments is a joy. A few habits keep it safer, and keep your kids in charge of their own story as they grow.
Posting family photos isn't inherently dangerous, but nothing online is completely private. Photos can reveal locations, schools and routines, and they can be copied or misused. Share with a small private audience, strip location data, skip identifying details and anything your child would find embarrassing, and ask them first as they get older.
What to know
- Location data. Many photos carry GPS coordinates. Big social apps strip it when you upload (after reading it), but email attachments and cloud links can keep it. On iPhone, tap Options in the share sheet and turn off Location. Photos can also give away location through what's in them, like a school logo or street sign.
- Expert tips. Law professor Stacey Steinberg, author of Growing Up Shared, suggests using nicknames, avoiding locations, posting later rather than live, skipping bath or nudity photos, reviewing old posts, and asking kids for consent. UNICEF suggests children can help review posts from around ages 9 to 10.
- Ask first. The UK's Chief Medical Officers put it simply: "Don't assume children want their photos shared."
- AI misuse. Steinberg and UNICEF note deepfakes made from family photos are not currently common, but could grow.
- Kid influencer laws. Illinois (2024), Minnesota (2025) and other states now protect children who appear in paid family content, for example by requiring earnings to be set aside in trust. They don't cover ordinary family posting.
A statistic to be careful with
You may have read that "sharenting will cause two-thirds of identity fraud by 2030." That was a 2018 bank forecast with no published method, never independently verified. We don't rely on it.
How OurDot handles family photos
Photos are shared only with your invited family, never publicly. They're re-saved on the phone before upload, which removes hidden location data, and stored in private storage, never on public links. More on the family feed.
Sources
- UNICEF Parenting, What you need to know about sharenting
- University of Florida, Snap Decisions (Stacey Steinberg)
- Flavio Copes, What your photos leak: EXIF metadata and GPS (Aug 12, 2026)
- AOP, UK Chief Medical Officers' screen time guidance (Feb 11, 2019)
- Davis+Gilbert, New laws protecting child influencers (Sep 6, 2024)
- Minnesota House, New law on child content creators (2024)
- Grazia on the 2018 Barclays forecast