Everyone wants to see a photo that their friend took before it gets posted somewhere.  We all want to make sure we like the way we look or the pose we have before it goes out for the whole world to see.  That shouldn’t be any different for children. Nora Mcinerny, writer for the TIME magazine asks if parents should ask for consent before posting an image of their children online. Fortunately, I believe that parents should ask for consent before posting an image of their children online.

As children get older, they tend to care about their image, especially in school such as, how they dress, how they style their hair, or what kind of show brand they wear and especially how they look. Children are often bullied because of an embarrassing picture posted on Facebook or any other platform. Before attending school (preferably Kindergarten), parents should ask their child if it’s okay to post an image of them on social media. An example of someone feeling disapproval would be my best friend of 6 years. She was born in Jamaica, living in a time where capturing photos was the best thing to do there. One day when she was 12, her mom went through her photo book and saw a photo of my best friend being bathed when she was a baby. Her mom said “This is too funny, I’m definitely posting this on Facebook!” My friend stopped what she was doing and asked her mom if she couldn’t. We were both in Bennet Academy, where students are starting to get on social media, have their little friend group, single people out and start to be picky with everyone. If they find one embarrassing photo of you, they will clown you for the rest of the year.

Tara Haelle, the author of Do Parents Invade Children's Privacy When They Post Photos Online? explained ways that children can be exploited. There have been studies showing “an unscientific survey of an online child pornography site by an Australian government official found a significant chunk of the photos had initially been shared by parents on sites such as Facebook and Instagram. The photos themselves were mostly innocent, everyday scenes of kids playing, but they were accompanied by explicit, inappropriate comments. The Australian official estimated that "about half" of the 45 million images "appeared to be sourced directly from social media." This isn’t a way of protecting our children. This is a way of dehumanizing children. I may be wrong, but I’m quite sure that parents should know when inappropriate comments are being made to innocent children. If this were my child, I wouldn’t post any of them ever again. It’s abruptly disgusting and I don’t know why individuals say inappropriate comments to children. We need to figure out a better way to protect our children.

It’s time to revisit the way we try to post our children online. Instead of posting embarrassing or inappropriate pictures online, think about it, ask for consent, then see if it’s appropriate to post it or not. We need to protect our children from dangerous third party websites and from those who want to bring down others. Ask for consent. If they say no, don’t post it. If they say yes, then you can post it. No means no.