In the case of our youngsters’s digital lives, prohibition not often works. It’s our duty to assist them construct a wholesome relationship with tech.
17 Feb 2026
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4 min. learn
The lives our youngsters lead at the moment are very totally different to our personal, 20, 30 and even 40-plus years in the past. And the principle cause for that distinction is know-how. For good and dangerous, the arrival of smartphones and social media has essentially modified the best way our youngsters work together with one another and the world round them. There’s no placing the genie again within the bottle. So the query for fogeys is, how will we handle the potential dangers whereas enabling our youngsters to guide completely happy digital lives?
In the case of posting selfies, there are some particular harms to contemplate. However speaking issues by is at all times the perfect first port of name.
The professionals and cons of social media
Though some would have you ever imagine in any other case, social media will not be inherently evil. In some methods, it may possibly even profit kids, offering a secure area for self-expression, and/or a group of likeminded folks to share tales and friendship. Some children could even attain out to search out assist and help from official sources by way of their social media accounts, after they’re too scared to ask their dad and mom.
Nevertheless, context is every part. One necessary clarification is whether or not your kids use social media primarily as a comms channel, to touch upon photographs and movies, or to repost content material. Or whether or not they incessantly submit movies and selfies of themselves. Except their profile is locked down and incessantly vetted, the latter may current some points.
How selfies can invite danger
As quickly as a selfie is posted onto a social media web site, your little one loses a specific amount of management over it. Even when they delete it, your little one could discover that the picture has been reposted and shared by their pals and followers.
This concept of “digital permanence” won’t happen to a young person after they’re submit on-line. But it surely issues now greater than ever, in an age when AI bots are scraping social media content material to coach massive language fashions (LLMs). This amplifies the potential danger of personal content material leaking into the general public area.
Extra regarding nonetheless for fogeys are the dangers {that a} selfie would possibly:
- Appeal to predators on the lookout for victims to groom.
- Appeal to predators and extortionists on the lookout for photographs they will feed into AI “nudifier” instruments, to make indecent content material. This might be shared on-line and/or used to blackmail the sufferer.
- Characteristic private info like delivery dates, or the title of their faculty, which might be utilized in mixture with different info to commit identification theft.
- Be utilized by cyberbullies and trolls to victimize your little one on-line.
- Include embarrassing or inappropriate particulars that are seen by employers or additional training establishments in years to come back.
Do selfies influence psychological well being?
There’s additionally a rising physique of proof to recommend that social media use, together with the posting of selfies, may lead to psychological hurt. A 2017 research of eighth to 12th graders discovered a 33% improve in depressive signs between 2010-2015. The suicide fee for ladies on this age group elevated by 65% over the identical interval.
There’s no direct causal hyperlink right here. However the correlation is obvious, as this is identical interval that smartphone and social media penetration surged within the West. Consultants have additionally claimed that social media can influence younger folks’s shallowness, bodily well being, and high quality of sleep. The usage of AI filters together with selfies may theoretically foment an unhealthy obsession with look at a time in life once we’re emotionally and psychologically susceptible. It’s a part of the rationale why the US surgeon common in 2023 launched an advisory on Social Media and Younger Psychological Well being.
Time for parental steerage
As dad and mom, we’ve got a novel and necessary position to play in setting boundaries, educating finest apply and offering emotional and psychological help for our youngsters. That is true of many elements of life, however particularly the digital world.
Begin by opening the communication channels. Set clear guidelines about what sort of selfies must be off limits, similar to provocative photographs or something together with figuring out info like your tackle. However stability this by educating your children about privateness settings, together with find out how to prohibit their profile, change off geolocation and require guide approvals for others to tag them in photographs. Educate them additionally why they need to be selective about who they permit to observe them (i.e., solely folks they’re pals with in actual life). And why it is perhaps helpful to do a “digital spring clear” each few months to take away sure followers and different contacts.
It is necessary to create a non-judgmental, respectful surroundings in an effort to encourage honesty, particularly in case your little one needs to speak to you about one thing they discover uncomfortable or embarrassing like cyberbullying or sextortion. However in case you really feel like that belief has been damaged, parental monitoring instruments are an choice, for limiting display time and entry to particular content material and apps.
Constructing a greater relationship with know-how
Finally, it’s not about banning your little one from posting selfies. It’s about giving them the data to make rational, risk-based choices about what to submit on-line. That features warning them about predators, bullies and fraudsters. But additionally the potential psychological well being implications of extreme social media use.
So by all means strive issues like minimizing display time at residence, banning telephones on the desk, and setting apart an hour or two on the weekend for household actions. However you additionally want to guide by instance. A 2024 research finds that 75% of fogeys share photographs, movies and different content material on their kids. Earlier than you begin a dialog in regards to the professionals and cons of your children sharing selfies on-line, contemplate first reining in your “sharenting” habits.
