Maybe you should hide your kids photos. 

The best way to hide your kids' photos is not to post them.

there are a lot of photos i wish my parents wouldn’t have shared now that i’m older.

My kids were raised before social media became a thing so we didn't face the issue. Prints were shared in albums with friends and family. We are grandparents now. There is no way I would knowingly share pictures of my grandchildren on social media - certainly not without their, or their parents, consent. Even with consent, I won't do it. I think it is a bad idea.

This discussion should have been done over 10 years ago. Kids are growing up with their life in photos and knowing they been online almost their entire life with no permission.

Good discussion and a great topic to think about as a fairly new grandfather that loves to photograph his grandchildren!

Before our child was born we pledged not to post photos of her on the internet. 4 years in and definitely the right move.

This is some really amazing and sound advice for anyone raising kids. I know so many people that just post away like it is no big deal but they just don't think about any of the nefarious people out there. Also, as far as me, I actually don't take many pictures of people to begin with, and those that I do, I ask before posting.

Fascinating and timely. I feel bad though that you regret occasions where you’ve shared something and had a negative experience. What’s sad is that it can leave the sharer feeling foolish. Disheartening.

Excellent discussion about an extremely delicate topic.

My rule is that I do not post photos of children online at all. Beyond the present dangers that exist, are we as parents and adults okay with doing the equivalent of signing away our children's future rights to privacy by not keeping them out of facial recognition and AI training model databases today? Does the convenience of sharing photos of our children online outweigh the unknown future risk to which we expose them? The Internet moves faster than we can even begin to predict what may happen.

Theres no downsides of keeping kids photos private.

Best not to share since kids are too young to make the choice from themselves. I think people have a right to control their web presence in 2023, for all the reasons you shared, but the reason doesn’t really matter imo - it should be their choice. In the past none of this was important, but now it is.

This is good that you two address this. Also the cookies they use are pretty scary. For instance, you search for something and it's ad appears on all of your social media sites

I'd love to hear more about "private social media" and the tools and techniques you use.

Sadly, a lot of weirdos contact young kids on the internet regardless, it's not your fault but I understand why you would have done things differently. The best one can do is to educate them about the risks, just like it happens on the real world. Thank you for this talk. It is definitely something we should consider and stay vigilant about. I don't have kids but my family and friends do and this is something we all should participate and try to fix together.

I don't have kids, but I do photography and I have done family/group photos which include their kids. Now there are times I would like to add photos from the session to my online portfolio and my socials to get my work out to find more clients, however I ALWAYS ask the parents if it would be okay to share one or two of those photos because they might not feel comfortable with having an image of their kid/s online. My gf's friend has a younger one and she never posts any images of her kid online because she feels some sicko will do something with it (either now or years later when they're older).

In NY like CT you and I both know that our kids have been filmed and in a school computer and database since pre-school its kind if sickening tbh.

It's not just kids - any sort of media presence at any age, even the most benign, opens you up to creeps and creepy comments/propositions. I grew up in the age of no online presence, but now I have one and the number of creepy encounters has gone through the roof. As a senior, I'm seen as vulnerable, just like kids, and boy do they try to exploit that. I'm aware and can manage it, but we do have to help protect everyone that might not be able to, including kids. It would be nice to have more controls on these platforms, but at minimum, I'm making conscious choices around what I share.

My opinion is to respect our kids privacy and not share anything unless they say it's ok. If they aren't old enough to give an opinion then don't share. Alternatively you can create a private gallery to share with friends and family, with explicit instructions that sharing from that gallery is not ok, and explain why it's important not to share anything from that gallery.

really important topic thanks for highlighting it

I think it’s helpful to be cautious of what you share: example, you used her name in the video. Those kinds of things give “weirdos” more info to search with. Keeping the info anonymous as possible makes sense to me. “our kid who’s a teen” midway through vs earlier when you said her exact age. In particular because people already know the town you live in because of other videos where you’ve mentioned it, (I know because I live in CT and have been like “oh how cool would it have been if we ended up shooting on the same beach or preserve etc.”). But my interest is in geeking out, I’m a professor at a local college, so I could imagine also using a meet up as a springboard to get my students more engaged since some of them are fans. However, I’m also not going out of my way to meet, just recognizing I’ve been there before and have friends in the area. But not everyone is so innocent and there are bad actors in the world, so avoiding direct details becomes more important. Possibly doing another video like this with scenarios and do’s and don’ts to help people navigate these nuances.

It's sad that we have weirdos out there, I guess everything that is overall good has a dark and nasty side too. If we think of it as we are very much in the era of digital stranger danger and continue to create awareness in children and informed consent for any photos/videos shared we may reduce the risks. It is probably best to keep family and close friend photos where children are involved private and suggest to any friends at gatherings that they do the same, controlling the audience will hopefully reduce the sicko elements' access to any of the images. Also as photographers we have a responsibility to protect anyone vulnerable, I do a lot of event photography and these events often have younger people at them. I always try to speak with anyone I photo or their parents/guardian/carer etc, show them the photo and explain where it will be used. I will also remove it if requested to do so immediately. When it comes to community events I try to get the word out there that I will be taking photos and that they will be shared on a specific site or page. I pride myself on being ethical, open and respectful and it would break my heart to have any photo I took put someone at risk, it will be my and other photographers' duty to keep awareness of where technology is heading and the new risks it poses.

Totally off topic: I really like the lighting on this video. Great job (good topic, too).

Interesting discussion. My daughter forbids any posting of her two kids (1 and 3).

I don’t even post pictures of myself. Anyone heard of face recognition searches. The internet has become a scary place.

Understand what Social Media is. It’s roughly equivalent to taking family photos in 1975 and sending those photos to every newspaper in the country.

Respectfully, I have a security background. Anything you post online can and will be used against you. Everyone should treat themselves like a billionaire. Think through what-ifs, mitigate risks, create backup plans. Just because Zuckerberg has kids does not mean that anyone else's are less deserving of anonymity online. Or a safe school. Or good food. Every parent should absolutely know the risks their children face to make informed decisions on their behalf. He and any other tech leader 100% should be apart of any discussion revolving around technology they are creating and advancing. There are past new articles about how tech leaders severely limit screen time for their own kids. Why? Because they absolutely know what the algorithms are designed to do, exactly what information is being collected and then packaged and sold. We are the product.

My wife and I discussed this and we decided that as long as our child was young enough to be just a "generic" looking baby, we were ok with posting online.. and there is a series of images of my daughter that are some of my best selling stock photos.. as soon as she is old enough to be easily identifiable, however, we will not be publicly posting pictures of her anywhere..

Yes you should. End of story. Respect the privacy of your kids. Their dignity, and also protect them from some creeps.

Definitely not. There are traffickers *everywhere.* They target mostly young men and women, aging from 6 to 16. A good example of parenting would be Jason Statham and Rosie Huntington-Whitley. They keep their children very private, but people know they have children. They know how dirty the industry is. The glamour world is less about glamour and more about exploiting the younger generation. It's been happening for centuries. It's easier now due to social media.

VERY IMPORTANT TOPIC , A VERY GOOD EXPLANATION :) THANK YOU FOR SHARING :) THANK YOU FROM ISRAEL :)

My instant, gut reaction, to the headline question: YES, you should.

My Facebook account was hacked and I was completely locked out of it. All my photos of my child and family members that I had shared are now in the hands of a hacker. The account has been reported but Facebook will not take it down. I will no longer share family photos online, ever.

Was at a festival today and took some photos. Some had kids in the crowd. This video has made me think twice about sharing them.

Our family has not taken any pictures of the kids or family members in the 20 years since cameras went digital. Storing them on the hard drive of a computer with a modem seemed too insecure. If a tech billionaire can't keep his own digital media secure, what chance to normal people have?

Yes.

Great content, too bad it can't be shared on Facebook where lots of people share pics of their kids.

At least in (most of) Europe it is not only a private decision but might be covered by laws. Even your kids could sue you for posting pictures. Taking pictures of foreigners is difficult and publishing even more.

I don't, I use to when she was smaller but I still hardly did, even with my account being private and everybody that I followed I knew.

Took me a long time to get here, but this is very simple.... "Do the children in question give consent?" Mine often do not consent to public postings, and as much as this puts a damper on my lifetime photographer compulsions, I will comply! When they were younger and I was still trying to navigate early internet habits, I would still keep a lockdown folder of public vs private postings.

I wouldn't post photos of my kids onto social media until they're old enough to make that decision for themselves. Whether that's 13 or 18 depends on their maturity and ability to comprehend the pros and cons of sharing your life online.

yes

Yes, you should.

Just saw a short of a podcaster who had on a hacker or something and they took a pic of the podcaster and asked AI to get every photo of him from the internet. Something about 10-20 point facial recognition… took less than 5 minutes to get all his photos on the internet.

If they gonna do something they gonna do something... walk in public? Webcams, ring cams, cctv cams, badge cams, bank cams, super market cams, etc. are all over the world... you can run but you cant hide

that is why we need to watch '2017 THE CIRCLE'

You are Free to do what you want with any Photos. Problem is when you make things public you no longer have convention over the rules of said information. yea one solution is just not to post anything. Better solution is working in a way for you to controll who gets to see the info and agree to use it in a way you wish. Dont leaver it up to others to decide what is freedom or put new Rules on you. It is for each person to deside on their own and soon with AI's help the adminastration of your sories info images and ip will be free to be represented in the way you wish. Until then GL with the entire Minor issue if you have done kicked the Dad (AKA Old School Protector) out of the home. Dont let others braine wash you into thinking that is a good idea

Mine r only private..and deny storage access after uploading!

Is there really any safe way to send pictures of children? Aren't those images getting "temporarily" stored in multiple places going from point A to point B in just about every way they're sent?

I’m from the time before the internet. As a young adult I pulled some of the wires through walls and ceilings to create the first computer to computer interconnections. It was clear even before those times that bad travels alongside good. You simply didn’t put things out there unless you considered the dangers of doing it. Why it’s an issue today is astounding! There are no words to describe such things.

If you use a f0.95 lens, everyone will disappear altogether.

Yeah, call me paranoid, but I've never posted my nieces and nephews. And it's not like i was banned by the parents. I just never wanted to expose them like that

Not sure why people do that .. Poor kids 😢

Does any of this apply to cloud based storage like iCloud, Google photos or Amazon photos? I have a 3 1/2 year-old that we do not allow photos of him to be posted online or emojis get put over his face or it’s only the back of his head. That being said we do use cloud based storage as back ups. Should we be concerned in anyway because some of these can potentially be used to train AI?

I don't post pictures of myself as well.

Tell this please to all the RU-vidR's VLOGGING every moment of their family and kids lives.... all to make a $$$... it is a sad sickness and these poor kids are going to pay the price as they get older!!

For similar reasons I don't review children's photo's !

I'm more concerned about phones having 100 megapixel cameras, any one can be snapping away you and your children while you're out shopping and sharing them with other sick perverts on forums. Cameras and software are so good even a poor quality image from a distance can be fixed in post or they can simply get a nice steady shot from a distance away from you very discreetly without anyone knowing.

Nothing bad happened that she is telling you about, she loves you too, and she knows that you didn’t mean for this to happen.

I have couple of videos on my RU-vid channel where my kid is in. I wish I didn't do that.

And your pictures on various clouds ☁️ 😅 .. secured 😂 or not 🌧️

Yes. That is the recommendation from cyber security experts, and agree because they are minors, and when they become adults, their images are on the internet and can come back on them negatively....say they run for public office and your pics of your kid chowing down on pizza ends up in an attack ad?

I do find it baffling posting a picture of your family with faces erased. Maybe just don't post any picture? Ex f1 driver Nico Rosberg did this and all I could think of was why he didn't just post the picture of his wife and himself with no kids in the frame? I don't have kids, of my friends some post a lot on social media, some have never posted kids on it. I'd not post them because its not their choice regardless of whether the account is locked down to who can see it.

A good rule of thumb is: if you’re worth a billion dollars then it might be a decent idea. If you’re not then don’t worry about it. Seriously.

🎉🎉🎉

Are you going to review the Dji Air 3?

Timely awareness topic considering the movie- Sound of Freedom.

Yes, definitely it is correct to not expose your children, they have the right to decide that once they are aware of the consequences.

There's hardly a unique visage out there in the world, we all most likely look almost exactly like thousands of other people.

Absolutely not

Let’s start by getting rid of family vloggers exploiting their children with zero consent of the child, exposing them to creepos and creating a permanent digital footprint they can never escape.

With the existence of politicians like Joe Biden and Scott Weiner, I think that is a good idea.

This is a very disturbing topic--not only for photographers, but for everybody who doesn't want to live in constant fear. Now street photographers can't photograph people for fear creeps will stalk them. What's next? Should landscape photographers disguise their locations for fear some creep will find their favorite tree and burn it down? Are we supposed to hide in our bunkers and live in lock-down? Do we surrender to the creeps?

Clearly, Zuck is hiding his kids from Elon. Case closed.

It's your involvement as parents that protect and educate your children of the threats. It's a little dramatic use of language substituting the word Creep for everyone including honest strangers.

every photos we take goes somewere in the cloud and at this time EVERY COMPANIES are working on something AI = we all already entered in some datasets without our consent. It is too late to open this topic now. To avoid any risk one had to remove any photos at the beginning of AI, avoid taking pictures and upload them in some clouds services..and leave the house putting a mask.. nah.... Let's relax and continue doing what we've always done, without too many worries and with our life as it's always been

So, someone talked about being able to remove emojis from photos on the internet? I don't know if this is true, but it sounds scary

When you say "kids", what ages are you referring to? Young kids without a phone maybe I could understand this if you're famous. Once your kids have a phone and on social media, what they're posting on Tik Tok & IG is probably far worse than what parents would ever post. My kids are now adults, but have played sports since they were 7-8 and I always post their sports photos. Plus most schools get consent from the parents that they're ok with the school posting pictures of them during school events. I shoot all the sports for my older son's HS and they're posted on IG & FB by the school as well as by me, just nothing that would put the kid in a bad light or look.

Actually photography is dead anyway. Only documentary and street photography will be interesting in the future. AI will kill the "cute and nice" photograph. We have seen it all. We will still document our lives and events. So here we still will bring a camera in some form. We will print images of our daily life to our family and friends. But all the birds, flowers, sunsets etc - we have seen it all before. And AI makes it better anyway. Also you can close this channel. Who needs algorithms like on Instagram or TikTok. No need for all these commercial videos about gear. In two years we don't talk about sharpness, megapixels and noise in a camera. AI takes care of it. So I guess, Tony, you will have to make a channel about gadgets, flowers or philosophy .... You are already headed in that direction, I can hear....

Why do you roll ur eyes?

My kids are secret

You can pretty much bet that any photo taken with a phone that has access to cellular service or Wi-Fi has been uploaded to a database somewhere whether you wanted it to or not.