By Malcolm Sutton
Parents might think there is no harm is posting an image of their child on Tinder or Facebook, but authorities warn those same images could end up in the galleries of paedophiles.
The rise of social media and dating applications has seen images of children uploaded to the World Wide Web in ever increasing numbers, usually by their parents, and usually without permission nor understanding from the child.
Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner (OCEC) senior education adviser Kellie Britnell said it was not uncommon for child pictures posted online, fully clothed or otherwise, to end up in the online hands of paedophiles.
“When our prohibited online content team that deals with child sexual abuse material goes searching for a URL they are given, they know that some of those images have been taken directly from social media sites,” she said.
“The kids don’t necessarily have to be naked, but put them in a library with a whole lot of other images … they are people that you don’t really want looking at your children’s photos.”
She said location technology connected to smartphones, photos and apps also risked handing over key information to predators about a child’s school, their outside engagements, and even their homes.
“When your child looks cute in a school uniform, that’s fine when it’s on your phone, but once you post it, you’re giving away lot of information, depending on your circle of friends, but also friends of friends, depending on your settings,” Ms Britnell said.
“We can say, only share it with people you know and trust, but we also know with a lot of these sites, people inadvertently can see photos that were never intended for them.”