Smile!  You’re on not-so-candid camera!  As parents it is our god given right to document the lives of our children. It is more than a right, it is an obligation.  Actually, for many it is more than a obligation, it is an obsession!  From the moment of our child’s birth we are compelled to capture them on film, video, digital, pencil sketches, watercolors, crayons  – whatever the prevailing and available recording or imaging technology is, we will use it to capture our very own “Kodak Moments.”  As long as it involves our beloved offspring it is worthy of being photographed and preserved forever.  As our memories wane with age, we can sleep peacefully at night knowing that we took pictures (LOTS of pictures) to remind us of all those wonderful childhood moments we created for our kids.  More importantly, we have proof of those wonderful times to wave in front of our children and remind them how good we were at raising them!

OUT OF THE CLOSET: FROM SHOEBOX TO FACEBOOK

Of course, the times they are a changin’ and with the perfect storm of digital photography, the Internet, and Social Networking, every picture ever taken can now be made available for viewing by almost all of the humans on the planet.  That adorable shot of your now 17 year-old Goth Queen daughter when she was 7 in pigtails and freckles can now be shared not just with the family, but with everyone! Why wait for a family gathering to break out the slide projector or shoebox of photos.  Email it or upload it instead!  Why hide in the closet such a myriad of opportunities to embarrass your children?  Go for it.  Post them to your Facebook page and tag them with your kid’s name to ensure they will appear in your child’s feed for all their friends to see!

WHAT IS YOUR PRIVACY POLICY?

It is one thing to lovingly embarrass a teen or young adult, but with younger children there are many varied and volatile opinions about how transparent a parent should be when it comes to posting and sharing images of their kids online.  When I first got a Flickr account, I was reluctant to post public pictures of my children, but in recent years, as social media in particular has completely revamped my personal privacy point of view, I have been more comfortable sharing all aspects of my life, including my children.  Granted, they are older, but I don’t think my behavior would be much different if they were younger.  Yes, there are bad people in the world and bad things sometimes happen to children, but there were bad people and bad things long before we had the means to share so widely and openly.  There is risk and reward with everything we do, and overall, I have personally come to the conclusion that, done intelligently, the rewards of “open” outweigh the risks.  That said, I have friends on both sides of the fence on this issue.  I know people like the talented C.C. Chapman who is practically a professional photographer of his children and regularly shares delightful and inspiring photos he takes of his kids.  On the other side, at a recent Social Media Camp in Miami I attended, the lively speaker was Ines Hegedus-Garcia of the popular Miamism blog and she was adamant about the fact that while much of her life is open and online and she has built a successful real estate practice by being so open, she will never post pictures of her children online.  I think I would place myself somewhere in between these two extremes.

How about you?  Are your kids tired of being followed around by the lurking lens of a Parent Paparazzi?  Are you comfortable publicly sharing pictures of your kids?  I am sure there are many opposing opinions on this and it would be great for all the Dad-O-Matic readers if we could take the discussion to the comments (and of course, feel free to link to pictures of your kids… or not.)

Jeff Sass is the proud dad of ZEO (Zach, 20, Ethan, 19 and Olivia, 17).  He is also a seasoned entertainment and technology exec and active social media enthusiast.  You can see more of Jeff’s writing at Sassholes! and Social Networking Rehab.

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