'Parents post their kids’ photos online despite knowing it may cause harms'

Agencies
August 28, 2018

Aug 28: Although Indian parents are aware that images of their children posted online could end up in the wrong hands, most of them are still sharing their kids' images online often without any consent from them, a survey by global cyber security firm McAfee revealed on Tuesday.

The survey, titled The Age of Consent, found 40.5 per cent of parents in India (with Mumbai being the most active) post a photo or video of their child at least once a day on their social media accounts, with 36 per cent posting a picture of their child once a week.

Most parents identified the following concerns associated with sharing images online including paedophilia (16.5 per cent), stalking (32 per cent), kidnapping (43 per cent) and cyberbullying (23 per cent), but many (62 per cent) don't even consider if their child would consent to their image being posted online.

"What's even more alarming is that a whopping 76 per cent of parents say they are aware that the images of their children posted online could end up in the wrong hands," the survey noted.

Mumbai (66.5 per cent) was followed by Delhi (61 per cent) and Bengaluru (55 per cent) where majority of parents believed they have the right to share images of their child online without consulting them first.

"The survey reveals parents are not giving enough consideration to what they post online and how it could harm their children. Posting kids' information may compromise their personal information," said Venkat Krishnapur, Vice-President of Engineering and Managing Director - McAfee.

Responsibility lies with parents to understand the implications of their social media habits/actions and the repercussions the child may face, he added.

The survey found parents from Mumbai to be most active with 48 per cent posting a picture of their child on social media at least once per day in comparison to other metros like Delhi (38.5 per cent) and Bengaluru (31 per cent).

More than half of the parents surveyed (67 per cent) admit that they have or would share a photo of their child in their school uniform despite the risk of giving away personal information thus paving the way for stalkers to get added details on their child's whereabouts.

While 55 per cent of parents only share images of their child on private social media accounts, 42 per cent are still sharing images on public social media accounts.

"Parents from Bengaluru (59 per cent) exercise highest caution and post pictures of their children only from private social media accounts, closely followed by Mumbai (57 per cent) and Delhi (48.5 per cent)," the findings showed.

While it's clear that parents are worried about physical risks to their children's safety, results indicate less concern about the emotional risks.

Interestingly, it appears mothers consider the embarrassing side effect more than fathers, with 47 per cent mothers admitting that they would never post images their children would be embarrassed by, in comparison to 38 per cent of dads.

To reach this conclusion, McAfee commissioned market research firm OnePoll to conduct a survey of 1,000 parents of children aged 1 month to 16 years old across Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.

"Many social networks will tag a user's location when a photo is uploaded. Parents should ensure this feature is turned off to avoid disclosing their location. This is especially important when posting photos away from home," said McAfee.

Parents should only share photos and other social media posts with their intended audience, it added.

Comments

Unknown
 - 
Tuesday, 28 Aug 2018

Sponsored survey I think. 

Ibrahim
 - 
Tuesday, 28 Aug 2018

How to avoid such threats..? Does a anti virus help from such situation? I did many times. How to save my family from threat

Ramprasad
 - 
Tuesday, 28 Aug 2018

Many people think that hackers, attackers, criminals use only big foots images. Wrong. They may use anyones. Less noticeable has more probability

Suresh Kumar
 - 
Tuesday, 28 Aug 2018

Should not post recent updates of your family. If you cant avoid posting on social media, then post after some years. Not recent one

Mohan Bhatt
 - 
Tuesday, 28 Aug 2018

People want publicity. They do not think about future threats.

anonymouse
 - 
Tuesday, 28 Aug 2018

This is the most uselss and senseless article i have ever read in my life .
Do you think a 3 year old or a 1 year old can give consent for the pictures ????

If you are at all living in 2018 , with facebook, twitte and instagram , you should know that nothing that you ever do is private .

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News Network
February 9,2020

Hassan, Feb 9: Accusing the Centre for treating Karnataka as its enemy Former Minister and Congress leader UT Khader on Saturday said that the state did not get support from the Centre on the Mahadayi issue and flood relief and even the Union Budget.

Speaking to the media here, he said that the state has elected 25 BJP Lok Sabha members. Three from the state were Ministers in the Union Cabinet and another MP has been appointed president of the party’s state unit.

'None of them have spoken about the injustice done to the state in the budget. The budget document announced Rs 18,600 crore for the suburban railway in Bengaluru. But, ultimately the amount earmarked for the project is only Rs 1 crore. How can any BJP leader justify this?', the Congress leader wondered.

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News Network
March 11,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 11: Amid the prevailing political uncertainty in Madhya Pradesh with Jyotiraditya Scindia's exit, Congress leader DK Shivakumar on Wednesday asserted that "leaders may come and go but no one can destroy Congress."

"No one can destroy Congress. Leaders may come, leaders may go, that doesn't make any difference," said Shivakumar while speaking to news agency on the current political scenario for Congress in Madhya Pradesh.

Speaking about the Madhya Pradesh Congress MLAs, who are lodged in Bengaluru, he said: "All the Madhya Pradesh MLAs who are here do not want to lose their membership. I am sure they will understand, go back and save the government."

On Tuesday, Congress sent two of its leaders -- Sajjan Singh Verma and Govind Singh -- to Bengaluru in order to pacify some of the rebel MLAs who are lodged in a hotel there and who claimed to have resigned from the state Legislative Assembly.

After meeting with 19 party MLAs who have tendered their resignations, Congress leader Sajjan Singh Verma on Wednesday said they are neither willing to support Jyotiraditya Scindia nor in favour of joining BJP as they were "misled and taken to Bengaluru" in Karnataka.

"Nobody is ready to go with Scindia ji. They said they were misled and taken to Bengaluru, most of them said they are not ready to join BJP," Verma told ANI on being asked about the 19 MLAs.

"I just came from Bengaluru and now I am going to Jaipur. Besides 5-6 ministers and one MLA, we all are going to Jaipur. They (MLAs) have said they have the blood of Congress and they will remain in the party. Since Scindia was a senior party leader, all our MLAs followed his order as a courtesy," he said.

The Congress leader further claimed that BJP is using both "muscle and money power" to influence Congress MLAs.

He also claimed that he is strongly in contact with 7-8 BJP MLAs.

Most of the rebel MLAs are perceived close to Scindia and are apparently unhappy at Scindia being "ignored" in the party. The grand old party has been witnessing an internal turf war in Madhya Pradesh since the party formed the government in the state in 2018.

Scindia is likely to join BJP later today.

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News Network
March 29,2020

Kannur, Mar 29: A non-resident Keralite (NRK)

under home quarantine here since he returned from Sharjah recently died on Sunday, officials said.

According to health authorities, Abdul Khader (65), a resident of Kannariparamba, was kept under home quarantine after he returned from abroad on March 21.

Police said the man had no symptoms of coronavirus but was under isolation as per Covid-19 protocol for persons returning from abroad and other states.

"The relatives of the deceased took him to hospital after seeing him unconscious in his room. However he died before reaching the hospital," police said.

Quoting medical college authorities, the Mayyil police said he died of cardiac arrest.

However, the health officials said they will test his blood sample to ascertain whether he was affected with novel coronavirus.

The body has been kept at the Kannur medical college and will be handed over to his kin only if the result of his blood test is negative, sources said.

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