Sharenting in the AI Era: Review Your Child’s Old Photos

Most of us have posted hundreds of photos of our children over the years: first steps, school plays, birthday parties, days at the beach. The National Crime Agency and the Internet Watch Foundation have warned that ordinary photos like these are being collected and altered with generative AI to make child abuse material. You can reduce that risk today, starting with the photos already online.

Why ordinary photos carry a risk

Offenders don’t need a dramatic image to misuse one. A school uniform, a name on a sports kit, a child at a swimming pool or a beach can all be enough for AI tools to be misused. Public accounts make this easy, because anyone can download, save or screenshot what they can see.

This isn’t about your child being singled out because of who they are. It’s about public content being easy to harvest. The fix is to make it harder to reach.

Step 1: Make your main accounts private

Start with the accounts where you post most. Menus change, so if you can’t find an option, search the app’s settings for the word ‘private’.

1. Instagram: Tap your profile, then the three lines, then Settings and privacy → Account privacy. Switch on Private account.
2. Facebook: Go to Settings & privacy → Settings → Privacy. Under Who can see your future posts, choose Friends.
3. TikTok: Go to Profile → Settings and privacy → Privacy. Switch on Private account.

A private account means only approved followers see your posts. Check your follower list too, and remove anyone you don’t know personally.

Step 2: Review what’s already there

Changing the setting doesn’t change old posts on every platform, so you need to go back through them.

• Facebook: Go to Settings & privacy → Settings → Privacy and tap Limit past posts. This changes older public posts so only friends can see them.