They are so adorable. Of course we want to share the photos of our Grands on Facebook, Instagram and everywhere else our friends may follow. Only maybe we shouldn't–unless we've asked the parents first. There are, it seems, all kinds of ways photos can be misused.
Take this Ask Amy letter from a distraught mom whose mother-in-law has been sharing on Facebook photos she (the mom) has posted of her children. The problem, as the mom tells it, is the way in which the shared photos can get posted, re-posted and spread around to who-knows-what.
Here are the specifics from the mom:
A widowed aunt has been speaking to men over Facebook, and one of these men shared a photo of my daughter to his Facebook friends! This was truly alarming.
I immediately asked this person (whom I’ve never met) to take the photo down. After a day I was still so shaken that I deleted my account. My mother-in-law was heartbroken."
I don’t want [my mother-in-law ] sharing so many pictures, because others in her circle seem to think that by her sharing, they are welcome to do that as well.
There you have it. Inadvertently we may cross a social media line–making the parents of our grandchildren uneasy about the safety of their children. So we're stuck with keeping those photos to ourselves to enjoy–unless we clear the share with our Grand's parents. It can be a dangerous world out there. The tech-safety challenges weren't around when we were bringing up our children, but they are here now, and we may not understand all the ramifications.
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