[NG_EV]

I have long been of the opinion that we should not publicly post our own pictures or those of our family online for everyone to see. Sharing in closed family groups is one thing, posting it on Facebook where close family members as well as distant acquaintances are in your friends list is a different thing altogether.
Then came WhatsApp and it brought with it "Status". These days you can see parents uploading photos or videos of their kids on status, youngsters doing whatever they do on Instagram or other apps (never used Instagram). We should need to understand that anything you post on the internet is permanent and someone somewhere has a copy. This has become more serious issue in the era of AI.

I am posting links of 2 videos to give an idea where the technology has reached.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPU0WNUzsBo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4WZ_k0vUDM

Though the first one may seem funny I was scared, the second one was much more scarier. I didn't realise the points made in the 2nd one would be what they are.
The social media challenges that used to come earlier like post a "now and then" photo, find out how will you look like when you are older are just more data for someone's database.

If you add some episodes of "Black Mirror" to this list, they will scare the living daylights out of you.

Our kids are not mature enough to understand the implications of the pictures they post publicly. Please let us all help and guide ourselves and our kids to a more secure online environment.

Remember - If you wouldn't physically mail a picture to thousands of your contacts, why are you putting it out publicly for billions to see.

[udzgodfather]

Sir, what you have written is absolutely true and I resonate with your thoughts, with the paid partnerships, content creation, validation from mass public, are the key driving factors of people putting there lives in public place for display.

Seeing kids becoming the cash cows for the parents, bringing lavish lifestyle through partnerships and promotions, for the shorter gains parents are overlooking the longer loss.

[Small Bot]

When I first saw the title of the post, I thought it was about giving privacy to young children, so that they can develop a sense of independence and self-worth.

Then, I perused the article in detail and realised it was about something more relevant these days - protecting their privacy.

I find so many of my friends and acquaintances posting photos and videos of their young children all over social media, and all I could think of was - this content is going to stay on the internet forever and I just pray they aren't used for any nefarious purposes.

I do have social media accounts myself - Facebook (where I only post about my cats), Instagram (where I haven't posted more than 3 pics overall and haven't visited for at least a year), Twitter (forgot the password a long time ago, haven't tweeted even once) and LinkedIn (I go there only to search for a job). My brother has only LinkedIn and he's a much happier dude because of it.

Attention is an addictive drug, and nobody is immune to it. It's just that different people are affected to different degrees. I have seen it happen here as well. I know a T-BHPian (not going to disclose the name) who posts here every single day and then incessantly goes back to check how many likes he's received.

I'm not saying that it's completely bad. As an automobile enthusiast, you like getting the validation of your know-how from fellow enthusiasts. Just that the old saying 'Nectar is also poison in too large a quantity' comes to mind.

On the topic of children on social media, I find it heart-breaking to see young children, teenagers and young adults seek so much attention and validation from strangers on the internet, as compared to approval from their own family members. It's almost as if life becomes meaningless without the drug of affirmation from the internet coursing through their veins.

This takes a turn for the dark side, when we have platforms like Twitch, Onlyfans, etc. which monetise this need for attention. I find even short video platforms like TikTok, YouTube shorts, Instagram reels, etc. to be highly obnoxious and inducing youth to behave dangerously just for getting more likes from viewers all over the world. Recent instances of young bikers and drivers losing their lives while shooting live videos come to mind.

Which is why I keep advising my friends, cousins and colleagues to show more open affection and approval to the young ones in their family, because it might possibly minimise the need to seek it from strangers instead.

That, and please attempt to moderate the time spent and content shared on the internet. It's quite a dark place out there.

[SinghBHP]

Not sure if people will agree but........

I think the practice should start from 'Us', Parents. Our Kids tend to follow what parents do. If we are obsessive about social media or binging OTT our will also pick it while growing and do the same. I know there are cases where Parents are not on Social Media but Kids are - In that case we have to carefully pass on the message and keep them away.

- Example : I stopped all subscriptions , disabled my FB account. Never created an Insta or Twitter or Tik-Tok account.

- The last Webseries I binged on was Pataal lok. I realized during that time that my 8 years old son thinks it's normal to sit for 8 - 9 hours and watch TV. He started watching Marvel Studio stuff on Youtube and Hotstar and use to sit for hours unless we scold him. Realizing change has to start from me I stopped binging on OTT. Even stopped watching TV at night. If I feel like binging on something then I do it only when my Kids are away for weekend etc. in their Naani house else I do not do it. It has helped me as well personally :-) and practically stopped watching TV.