The invisible side of selfies

For better or worse, the advent of smartphones and social media has radically changed the way children interact with each other and the world around them. Cyber ​​security company ESET examined how to manage potential risks while ensuring that children live a happy digital life and shared its recommendations. 

Although there are different opinions,  social media is not inherently bad. In some ways, it can even benefit young people by providing them with a safe space to express themselves or a community of like-minded people with whom they can share stories and form friendships. Some children can obtain information from official sources through their social media accounts about topics they cannot ask their parents; They may even ask for support. But context is everything. An important clarification is whether your children use social media primarily as a communication channel, to comment on photos and videos, or to share content. Or do they share a lot of videos and selfies of themselves? This can cause some problems unless their profile is locked and checked frequently.

How can selfies pose a risk?

As soon as a selfie is posted on a social media site, your child loses a certain amount of control over it. Even if they delete it, your child may see the image reshared and spread by their friends and followers.  This idea of ​​“digital permanence” may not occur to teens when sharing online. But in an age where AI bots crawl social media content to train large language models, this issue is more important than ever. This increases the risk of private content leaking into the public domain. 

Even more worrying for parents is that a selfie could pose the following risks:

·       It could attract predators looking for their prey.

·       It could attract predators and blackmailers looking for images to feed AI “nudifier” tools to create sexually explicit content. This content may be shared online or used to blackmail the victim.

·    It may contain personal information such as date of birth or school name, and this information can be combined with other information and used for identity theft.

·    It may be used by cyberbullies and trolls to victimize your child online.

·     It may contain embarrassing or inappropriate details that may be visible to employers or further education institutions for years to come.

Selfies are the soul. Does it affect your health?

There is also increasing evidence that social media use, including sharing selfies, can cause psychological harm. A study conducted in 2017 on 8th and 12th grade students revealed that depressive symptoms increased by 33 percent between 2010 and 2015. During the same period, the suicide rate of girls in this age group increased by 65 percent.

There is no direct causal link here. However, the correlation is clear because it coincides with the period of increased penetration of smartphones and social media in the West. Experts also claim that social media can affect young people's self-esteem, physical health and sleep quality. The use of AI filters with selfies could theoretically lead to an unhealthy obsession with appearance at a time when we are emotionally and psychologically vulnerable. This is one of the reasons why in 2023 the US Surgeon General will issue an advisory on Social Media and Teen Mental Health.

Time for parental guidance

Parents have a unique and important role in setting boundaries, teaching best practices, and providing emotional and psychological support to children.  Set clear rules about what types of selfies should be prohibited, such as provocative images or any content that includes addresses and identifying information. But balance this by teaching your kids privacy settings, like restricting their profile, turning off their geolocation, and requiring manual approval for others to tag them in their photos.Teach them why they should be selective about who they allow to follow them (i.e., only people they are friends with in real life). Explain why it might be helpful to do a “digital spring clean” and delete certain followers and other contacts every few months.

It's important to create a non-judgmental, respectful environment to encourage honesty, especially when your child wants to talk to you about an uncomfortable or embarrassing topic like cyberbullying or sexual blackmail. However, if you think this trust has been broken, you can use parental control tools to limit screen time and access to certain content and apps. 

Kids need to have a better relationship with technology

The important thing is not to ban your child from sharing selfies, but to give them the information so they can make rational, risk-based decisions about what to share online. This includes protecting them from predators, bullies, and scammers. It also includes warnings about the potential mental health effects of excessive social media use. Therefore, be sure to try measures such as minimizing screen time at home, banning phone use at the desk, and dedicating an hour or two on the weekend to family activities. But you also have to lead by example. According to a study conducted in 2024, 75 percent of parents share their children's photos, videos and other content on their website. Before you start a conversation about the pros and cons of your kids sharing selfies online, remember to take control of your own “sharing” behavior.