Mr. Sfakianakis referred to incidents of children in Greece who found themselves in a very difficult position when photos were "tampered with" through photomontage and leaked to their school environment, presenting, for example, the child's face with the body of a porn star.
And it's not the photo itself that will bother the child, but rather the incessant mockery from his classmates or, even worse, the bullying that will follow.
And it's not just the photos that could put your children at risk. As Victoria Nash, director of the Oxford Internet Institute, says, there are two things parents should be aware of:
"One is information about children that they publish, such as their date and place of birth, where they live, and where they go to school, as this information can be used by someone to steal their electronic identity (i.e., to create a Facebook profile with these exact details).
The second has to do with the child's consent: What of what you post will your child want to see published when they grow up?
And most importantly, what cost this might have for the course of his life (e.g. you don't know how a photo of the child with a political message might somehow affect his future career).".
What you should do from now on
Both Mr. Sfakianakis and Dr. Nash agree that the best way to protect your child’s digital identity is to never post anything about them at all. Some parents feel they are taking a “protective measure” by posting photos of their children without mentioning their names anywhere – but the photos will remain there forever, available to everyone.
It is not impossible in the future, experts say, that a photo of your child that you posted when he is 4 years old could be linked to one that a friend of his posts when he is 10 years old and then to a professional profile that your child may have as an adult, thus creating a complete digital file of the child, over which he will have no control.
What can you do if you have already posted photos of your children on Facebook or Instagram?
Let us first tell you what you cannot do: Get them back. As Mr. Sfakianakis mentioned in his speech, in order for a girl from Ireland to be able to claim her entire digital archive, after she deactivated her Facebook profile, she had to resort to a multi-year legal battle with the medium.
What did she win in the end? A CD with her photos (copies of which Facebook apparently kept).
So what you can do is never post any photos of your children again, on any online medium.
As for photos you've already posted, you can delete them (of course, that doesn't mean they aren't already stored in Facebook's or someone else's archives). Photos that others have posted with you (and your kids) tagged in them can be hidden from your Timeline, but not deleted – only the person who posted it can do that.
From there, in the security settings of the medium (e.g. Facebook), choose to only allow your photos to be seen by your Friends (not even Friends of Friends) and choose to be notified every time someone tags you in a photo, in order to approve it before it is published - if your children are in the photo, your name will most likely be the one tagged.
Finally, inform all your friends and acquaintances that you do not want them to post any photos or information in which your child appears or is mentioned.
If you are concerned or certain that photos of your child are being used by others without your consent, the best thing to do is to contact Cyber Alert, the application for communicating with the Cybercrime Prosecution in Real Time – learn more here – or directly call the Cybercrime Prosecution Directorate at 210-6476464, 210-6476000.
Source: makeleio.gr
