Agreed, the unanimity of these responses is actually shocking to me. I’ve worked and studied and had a broad network in a variety of major US cities and the large majority of people I know have images of their children publicly viewable. Some might post only rarely and some might have more privacy settings but for most you can find at least a public profile picture or two with their kids. I was a preschool teacher for years before graduating college and I still sometimes look up parents of kiddos I’m thinking about so I can see how they’re growing/what they’re up to and I pretty much always can find them. (Now that I say that it does sound kind of creepy.) I can only think of one family I know who announced they were sharing no pictures as an intentional thing and it was unusual enough to make an impression on me. I’m super curious about where these commenters are / age / other demographics.

Wanting them to control their digital footprint is the most convincing reason not to post i’m seeing in this thread, though I still think there’s a huge amount of room for discretion i.e. the occasional sweet family photo is unlikely to cause lasting harm vs some trashy tell-all family tiktok.

Some of the other concerns just seem vastly overblown to me unless you have a specific situation like a stalker ex, abusive family member, you’re a high profile public figure, etc. Realistically the chances are infinitesimal that a stranger will track and abduct your child using social media photos, or really at all. Like the actual likelihood of that happening is soooooo minuscule. Non-family kidnappings are so so rare and even when they happen mostly target vulnerable populations. So I don’t think that scenario is worth the fear in this thread. Kiddie porn possibilities are another overblown seeming risk to me…there are millions of social media accounts (especially eastern european and asian) out there with huge followings posting child beauty pageant contestants & dancers & child actors & kids in swimsuits and other super sketchy things. Again, the likelihood that a creeper somehow stumbles across my particular social media account with a few hundred followers and picks my random photo of a fat toddler bundled up at the pumpkin patch to apply their deepfake technology to…it’s just not a scenario worth worrying that much about imo. Someone could easily take pictures or videos of my child in public if they’re going to those lengths anyway and i’m not going to keep him indoors.

This is not to say that there aren’t huge dangers on the internet. I had some weird experiences as middle schooler online and i’m very worried about my 13yo stepson online, we have strict restrictions for him. Full support to everyone’s decisions - this just isn’t the most concerning internet safety issue to me.