It’s not often that I feel I have something in common with an Oscar winning actress, but when Anne Hathaway admitted earlier this month that she instantly regretted the one image she’s ever posted of her one-year-old son online, I could relate.
You see, just like you, I think my child is beautiful. He has gorgeous full lips, a tumble of blonde curls and the cheekiest little smile. Just like you, my phone is full of hundreds of pictures and videos of him and is always perilously close to its storage limit.
But perhaps unlike you, I rarely ever share any of those images online and even when I do, I often wish I hadn’t. I could probably count on one hand how many pictures I’ve shared of him within his short life, which is less than some of my friends post of their kids in a single day.
But where Anne (can I call you Anne?) and I differ is that she says she feels as though in posting the image of her son she’s “broken some kind of seal” in inviting people into her private life. She has over eight million Instagram followers, I have a very modest Facebook friends list of 302. Let’s be honest, no one is hanging out for an invitation into my private life.
Top Comments
I just stop posting any thing related to my child on the internet because I like my privacy. Once you post it on the internet its out of your hands.
Social media is like the genie in the bottle, once it's been let out of the bottle there is very little control over what happens, unless you are exceedingly careful, your images can end up anywhere.
There was case in Europe quite recently, where an 18 year old ended up suing her parents, because they were sharing so many photo's of her including nude piccies from when she was a baby etc, on FB & (Instagram I think), they wouldn't stop doing it, even when she put a cease & desist order on them. So this is something many parents need to realise that children grow up and they have their own agency. This is a very good article, to remind people that we don't live in a bubble & that the number one job of a parent is keeping their child/children safe. People also need to keep in mind that FB accounts can be hacked so, even if by storing these images, care still needs to be taken. Great article.
social media wasn't around when she was a baby so not sure about that story.
Social media actually did exist - albeit in more primitive forms - back in the day (eg myspace, geocities, bebo, friendster etc etc). It's not a phenomenon invented by Millennials. ;)
Baby photos can be shared well after the baby is grown, you know!