Taking a photo of a girl playing with her friends in the pool or a baby just out of the bathtub is a common practice among parents, who should be aware of the risk of posting them on social networks, as these tender images for most can end up in the hands of pedophiles.
This is warned by the Doctor of Law and specialist in minors and social networks, Laura Davara, in an interview with EFE, in which she launches a warning to parents: when they upload this type of photo on Instagram, that is, with little clothing, they lose control of it and, therefore, in some way they are giving possible material to pedophiles, who can easily take a screenshot and keep it or upload it to a pornography forum.
Davara, author of the book The Definitive Book on Social Networks: Keys for Parents and Educators, which is a manual for parents and educators in the use of these technologies, recommends that families do not publish photos of their children naked, in diapers or in underwear, or even share them via Whatsapp, because we know with what eyes we look at them and with what intention we upload them, but we cannot control with what eyes and with what intention the person on the other side of the screen looks at them.
"I understand that the photo is super cute, that it is super adorable, that we all think that our son, that our grandson, that our niece is the most beautiful in the universe, and that is so," says the specialist, who, however, points out that for pedophiles it is material that "can satisfy their dark desires and, of course, that is the last intention with which the relatives upload it."
According to her, there is a statistic that says that 81% of babies have a digital footprint before 6 months of age due to ultrasounds and the infinite photos they publish when they are born on social networks, a practice that, if done, she recommends doing it avoiding as much as possible sharing additional personal information such as location, name and surnames.
Likewise, Davara suggests to relatives not to make public photos of minors with the school uniform, since with that information you can obtain information such as location and schedules, which, in the hands of a criminal, can put the minor at enormous risk.
The risk of being "influencer" parents
Regarding the profiles of "influencer" parents, she insists on how dangerous it can be for anyone, with good or bad intentions, due to their exposure on networks, to recognize a child and locate him.
She points out that in many occasions it is done because the publications in which images with children appear generate four times more success and, therefore, in certain cases such as advertisements or sponsorships, of income.
"No one loves their children more than their parents," says Davara- and, surely those parents who overexpose their children are unaware of the impact that such exposure may have on their children's lives: from being the object of ridicule at school to having their image uploaded to a pornography forum.
However, she differentiates between uploading a photo of a baby in diapers to another image of a child painting from behind, as the first has "much more risk" of being used for a bad purpose.
Aware of the current world, in which most people have their mobile phone in their pocket and do not hesitate to take it out to take a photo of the girl on the park slide or having a snack with her grandparents, the specialist in minors and social networks advises that if images are published, it should be done with caution: removing logos and location and, preferably, avoiding close-ups of the minor.
All these recommendations are extensible to WhatsApp, legally considered a social network, which does not offer as much privacy as is generally thought.
While it is true that, like the entire META group, it has made efforts to improve privacy, there is still a long way to go and when we hear that "WhatsApp is down" what may be occurring is a cyberattack, so, Davara insists, we must be very aware that when we share something via social networks it goes out of our control.
Tips for making good use of technologies
Despite all the risks, Davara is in favor of technologies, which "when used well have many advantages and when used badly or used by someone without the necessary maturity or training are worse than the devil" and can cause a lot of damage.
She also insists on the importance of talking about the mobile phone "long before giving it, almost, almost from the time they are born," she jokes.
She gives the example of a traffic light: parents teach their children to cross on green from the age of two and that does not mean that they are going to let them cross alone, because with the mobile phone, and with technology in general, "exactly the same," she insists.
In addition, she is against the use of screens under the age of two, as recommended by the World Health Organization, and that its consumption from that age onwards should be minimal and progressive and, always, under the supervision of an adult, because, as she warns, pornographic content also sneaks into Youtube Kids.
The age at which to give a mobile phone to a minor could be, in her opinion, at least 14 years old, which is when they are of legal age to give consent and can create accounts on social networks, although she believes that "more than the age" the criterion should be the maturity of the minor, the training of the parents and the digital education that has been given during the previous years.
In any case, making a mobile phone available should never be "free bar" but its use must be monitored and limited, which should not be limited to "parental control," a technology that, in her opinion, gives parents "a false sense of security."
However, it is enough to type in Google how to bypass parental control or use a friend's device that does not have it to see its ineffectiveness, points out the expert, who asks adults to inform themselves and their children about the legal consequences of publishing a photo without consent.
In short, she continues, the offline education that is given to children influences the one they later carry out on their social networks, so a good education would be enough to avoid many problems in the digital world.
Laura Davara has recently participated in the conference 'Minors and new technologies. Addictions, pornosocialization, mental health and offending behavior' that has brought together for two days a group of specialists in this field in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
