Kids are cute. Kids having their very first day of school are absolutely adorable. (Same for teens on the cusp of graduating into adulthood, but don’t tell them that.)
Not cute: You accidentally enabling the theft of your child’s identity—or far worse, the creation of sexually exploitive material with your kid’s face.
As school starts, my social feeds have exploded with “first day of school” signboards photos. Mateo is five years old, likes green and butterflies, wants to be a dinosaur when he grows up. His school is Roosevelt Elementary, and his teacher is Mr. Smith. Jayden is 12 years old, loves to read, is 5’1”, dreams of visiting Paris. They attend Lincoln Middle School, and their homeroom teacher is Mrs. Jones. Alex is 17 years old, likes tennis, plans to apply to CalTech for electrical engineering. She’s at Wake High School, and her homeroom teacher is Ms. Dougherty.
As fun as it is to see kids grow, I should not know details like these about minors I don’t know. I don’t love seeing the younger kids’ faces fully visible online, either. I have good intentions. But not everyone does.
In this age of AI, people can and do make abusive sexual material using the faces of innocent kids, taken from pictures posted online—like by family members or schools. They could be public posts, or even those that are restricted. I see photos from a mix of both. Sometimes the images belong to acquaintances. Occasionally, they’re from friends of friends with public posts.
You also can unknowingly make the manipulation or grooming of children easier by sharing these small but personal details with other adults. What they like, who they know, where to find them at school or even at home. (Sharp individuals can determine a location even when such info isn’t present in the photo’s metadata—just a few visual cues plus whatever else you’ve shared is enough.)
Experian
At a less terrifying level, your kids could also become targets for identity theft. People generally don’t monitor their children’s credit reports, making them ideal for scammers who want to open accounts in their name. The fraud can go undetected for years.
So what should you do? If you want these photos for the memories, keep them offline. Leave them in your digital photo collection. Maybe share them in private chats with trusted relatives and friends. (And make clear that they should be kept private.) But don’t put them on the internet, especially openly.
Also, while you’re at it, freeze your kids’ credit and banking reports, and also set up an IRS Identity PIN. (You can use our guide for more details on how—the process for each is fairly quick.)
I truly hate that a wholesome ritual can be twisted this way. But your kids are trusting you to keep them safe. Unfortunately for us adults, that means navigating digital spaces with greater care.
